The New York Times - 12/18/12, Duraid Adnan
Scott Nelson/WpN for The New York Times
President Jilal Talabani of Iraq, pictured in May 2006, has been receiving medical treatment abroad in recent years.
BAGHDAD — Jalal Talabani, the president of Iraq whose influence in mediating disputes among the country’s many political factions has far outweighed the limited powers of the office he occupies, suffered a stroke and was in critical condition Tuesday in a Baghdad hospital.
Mr. Talabani’s illness cast a shadow over the Kurdish lands in the north where he once fought a guerrilla war and where he now lives, and added a new element of uncertainty to the country’s divided politics, a year after the departure of the American military left Iraq’s leaders to steer the country’s shaky democracy on their own.
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