Saudi King Abdullah leaves hospital following successful surgery

Saudi King Abdullah leaves hospital following successful surgery
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, 89, has been discharged from hospital on Thursday after having successfully undergone a new operation on his back, the royal cabinet announced.

In pictures broadcast on state television on Nov. 28, the monarch looked in good health as he was shown receiving members of the royal family in Riyadh.

The operation, to correct “a ligamentary slackening in the upper back,” ended last month, a statement quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency news agency announced.

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.

King Abdullah has introduced economic and social reforms in the conservative Islamic kingdom aimed at reconciling Saudi Arabia’s religious traditions with a growing young population and modernity.

The heir to the throne is his half-brother Crown Prince Salman, 76, who was named to the succession on the death of Prince Nayef in June.