Abdel Aziz al-Hakim's death

Forgot to mention this yesterday, but Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, the founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, died from lung cancer in an Iranian hospital at the age of 60.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat, Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera all have details about his life and death. His son Ammar will reportedly take over (عربي) the party for the time being.

Juan Cole, writing in Salon, offers some thoughts about what al-Hakim's death means for Iraqi politics.

Important parliamentary elections are scheduled for January, and al-Hakim is not there to lead his own coalition to the polls. His son Ammar is still inexperienced and relatively young. The foremost figure in ISCI outside the al-Hakim family is probably Iraqi vice president Adil Abdul Mahdi, who is widely viewed as a pragmatist rather than a party activist.

Remember, the party announced earlier this week that it wants to align with the Sadrist movement in the January election.