PUK head Kosrat Rasul’s health improving, may leave intensive care soon

BERLIN, Germany – Kosrat Rasul, veteran Peshmerga and acting head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), is expected to leave intensive care on Monday following a week of treatment in the Kurdistan Region and Germany, his physician told Rudaw in Berlin.

 

Rasul, 64, is receiving treatment in a hospital in Berlin and is able to eat, speak, and move.

 

The leader was flown to Germany on Thursday.

 

Dr. Dara Rasheed, Rasul’s physician, said the PUK leader suffered from a stoppage of blood flow to his small intestine last Saturday morning, a condition called acute mesenteric ischemia.

 

Rasul underwent surgery in Sulaimani’s Faruq Hospital. Rasheed said Rasul’s condition has remained stable after the operation and he is in Germany to receive further evaluation and treatment.

 

“All indications show that his health is very good and very stable,” Rasheed said, adding that German physicians have decided to move Rasul out of intensive care on Monday.

 

“He will need another surgery after a month,” Rasheed explained about the path to recovery. 

 

Rasul has received phone calls from Kurdish leaders, Rasheed detailed, speaking in particular with Kurdistan’s former Prime Minister Barham Salih and veteran politician Mahmud Othman. 

 

Salih also visited Rasul in hospital in Sulaimani when he told Rudaw last week that the PUK leader and Peshmerga commander “is a strongman. He can beat this illness.”

 

Rasheed, who heads Rasul’s medical team, could not say when he will return to Kurdistan, but said that he should be discharged from hospital within a few days.

 

Rasul became the PUK’s acting head after the death of the party’s founder and leader Jalal Talabani in early October.

 

The party decided this month to dissolve its politburo and form an 11-member committee headed by Rasul and tasked with preparing for its congress to be held early next year.

 

Darbaz, Rasul’s eldest son, told Rudaw last week that his father will continue to work.

 

Rasul was last seen in public on October 10 when he attended a memorial for Jalal Talabani.

 

He was also Kurdistan’s Region’s vice president, serving until resigning October.