RIYADH, 2 February 2006 — Iraqi conjoined twins will be separated at the King Abdul Aziz Medical City here, it was announced yesterday.

“Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has given orders to separate the Iraqi conjoined twins at the King Abdul Aziz Medical City in Riyadh at his expense,” said Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, head of the National Guard Health Affairs.

The 20-year-old mother of the twins had made a humanitarian appeal on television to save her twins who were born about a week ago in strife-torn Iraq which lacks proper medical care.

Moroccan conjoined twins are currently at the King Abdul Aziz Medical City where an operation was expected to be held to separate them. Since 1990, Saudi surgeons led by Dr. Rabeeah have performed 10 successful operations in the hospital to separate Siamese twins from countries including Egypt, Poland, Malaysia and the Philippines.