TAMPA, Fla.-
Gen. John Abizaid, the head of U.S. Central Command, was briefly hospitalized over the weekend for a stomach illness that appeared to be food poisoning, the military said Monday.
Abizaid, who spent Friday night in the hospital, was back at work Monday at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, command spokesman Maj. Matthew McLaughin said. The Tampa-based command oversees U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The best we can tell he had symptoms consistent with food poisoning,” McLaughin said. He said Abizaid did not eat fresh spinach, which has been linked to an outbreak of E. coli.
Abizaid was in Washington last week meeting with leaders at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill. His stomach was upset Friday and he asked his staff to drive him to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, McLaughin said.
Doctors there held him overnight for observation and he was released Saturday.
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