Tunisia’s aging president hospitalized with serious illness

Tunisia’s first democratically elected president, 92-year-old Beji Caid Essebsi, has been taken to a military hospital after falling seriously ill.

Essebsi’s office announced his hospitalization Thursday. The president also was briefly hospitalized last week.

Essebsi won office in 2014 in the wake of the country’s Arab Spring uprising.

He recently announced he wouldn’t run in the election set for November, saying a younger person should lead the country. Essebsi has seemed increasingly frail during recent appearances.

Before the president's hospitalization was announced on Thursday, twin suicide blasts targeting security forces struck Tunis.

The first bomber set off their explosives near a police patrol stationed in a bustling commercial district in the center.

One of the officers was killed, while another policeman and three civilians were injured. 

Four officers were wounded in the second strike, which hit an entrance to the base of the anti-terrorism brigade on the outskirts of the city.