Saudi King Fahd Dies

[Annie]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050801/ap_on_re_mi_ea/obit_fahd

Saudi King Fahd Dies in Riyadh Hospital

2 minutes ago

Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, who moved his country closer to the United States but ruled in name only since suffering a stroke in 1995, has died, the Saudi royal court said. He was believed to be 82.

The king's brother, Crown Prince Abdullah, has been appointed the country's new monarch.

"With all sorrow and sadness, the royal court in the name of his highness Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz and all members of the family announces the death of the servant of the two shrines, King Fahd bin Abdel Aziz," according to a statement read out on state-run Saudi TV.

Fahd died at approximately 2:30 EDT, a senior Saudi official in Washington told The Associated Press. President Bush was alerted within minutes of Fahd's death, the official said on condition of anonymity.

During his rule, the portly, goateed Fahd, who rose to the throne in 1982, inadvertently helped fuel the rise of Islamic extremism by making multiple concessions to hard-liners, hoping to boost his Islamic credentials. But then he also brought the kingdom closer to the United States and agreed to a step that enraged many conservatives: the basing of U.S. troops on Saudi soil after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

In his last years, Fahd was more of a figurehead than the actual ruler — so he was sidelined as the close relationship he nurtured with the United States deteriorated after the Sept. 11 attacks. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, and many in the U.S. administration blamed kingdom's strict Wahabi school of Islam for fueling terrorism.