Saudi king has ‘successful’ back operation

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, 89, has “successfully” undergone a new operation on his back, the royal cabinet announced Sunday.

The operation, to correct “a ligamentary slackening in the upper back,” ended at dawn on Sunday, said a statement quoted by the official SPA news agency.

The sovereign had already undergone a similar operation in October last year.

In November 2010 he was operated on in New York for a slipped disc complicated by a blood clot that put pressure on his spine, and underwent a further operation the following month before convalescing for a month in Morocco.