The improvements in Iraq that both Coalition and local leaders have been touting of late apparently have reached a stage where the country’s beleaguered prime minister can pause long enough to tend to his own health. Iraqi TV reports that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is on his way to London for a medical checkup.

On the same day that U.S. military commander Gen. David H. Petraeus was telling reporters that offenses made possible by a surge in American and Iraqi forces means “levels of violence and casualties are significantly reduced and hope has been rekindled in many Iraqi communities,” local media reports say Maliki will be treated in England for exhaustion

According to newscasts on the popular Sharkiya television station, an unidentified person close to Maliki says the prime minister has been having problems with his blood pressure and diabetes and will undergo cardiac-related tests. Sharkiya, one of two stations carrying the report, has been at odds with Maliki government officials, some of whom accuse it of bias.

Buttonholed at Baghdad airport as he was preparing to leave, the 57-year-old prime minister explained: “I have been planning to go on this trip for some time. Now I have the opportunity and I will go and come back in a short time.”

Last February, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, 74, was treated in neighboring Jordan for what was described as fatigue and exhaustion coupled with dehydration. At the time, his office said the president’s maladies were brought on by “the hard and continuing work of the past few days.”