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Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, one of the most powerful Shiite leaders in Iraq, died Wednesday at a hospital in Tehran following a battle with lung cancer.
Hakim died after being admitted to an intensive care unit at a Tehran hospital earlier in the week.
The influential cleric took the helm of the pro-Iranian Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council in 2003 when his brother, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim, was assassinated in a car bomb in the holy city of Najaf.
SIIC was founded in1982 in Iran during the bitter Iran-Iraq war when the Dawa Party, then an insurgent group, was weakened following an assassination attempt against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Hakim rose to power following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, serving as the president of the Iraqi Governing Council in December 2003 and maintaining an allegiance to both Washington and Tehran.
SIIC is a member of the newly founded Iraqi National Alliance, a party announced by former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari earlier this week. The relationship between Dawa and SIIC soured in recent years, with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki leading his Dawa-backed State of Law slate to victory over SIIC candidates in the January provincial elections.
Khalid al-Attiyah, the deputy speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, offered his sympathies on the behalf of the Iraq government, al-Jazeera reports.
"We offer our condolences to all the Iraqi people for the death of Hakim," he said. "He is one of the symbols of Iraq. ... We hope political leaders will continue his work."
Hakim stepped out of the limelight when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2007.
His son, Ammar al-Hakim, is expected to take the leadership of SIIC.
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