Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Saeed al-Hakim, one of Iraq’s most senior and influential Muslim Shiite clerics, has died of a heart attack, members of his family said. He was 85. A relative, Mohsen al-Hakim, said that al-Hakim died at the Al Hayat hospital in Najaf on Friday where he was taken after suffering a sudden heart attack. His office announced that he died of a sudden medical condition. Iraq’s president and prime minister and other politicians issued statements eurlogizing Al-Hakim. The Saudi Embassy in Baghdad tweeted its condolences. Al-Hakim was seen as the top contender to succeed Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, who is in his early nineties. The Najaf-born cleric is a member of the well-known Hakim family of Shiite scholars. — Agencies