BAGHDAD -- President Bush looked slightly bemused after he ducked to avoid a shoe hurled at him. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki looked mortified, and as the assailant's second shoe came flying Sunday, he did what any gracious host would do: reached out and tried to catch it before it hit his American guest.
Al-Maliki missed, but so did the shoe, landing like the first one with a loud thud against the wall behind the two leaders, who held their ground as other journalists and security officials wrestled the shoe-thrower to the ground. Later, Iraqi journalists identified him as Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia, a satellite TV channel that broadcasts from Cairo, Egypt.
Colleagues said al-Zeidi has done extensive reporting from Sadr City, the stronghold of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and was rescued by Sadr's Mahdi Army militia after being abducted by an unidentified group in November 2007.
Al-Zeidi was one of several Iraqi journalists attending the Sunday evening news conference inside Baghdad's heavily secured International Zone. His outburst came without warning as Bush and al-Maliki prepared to answer questions. The first shoe flew over the heads of other journalists and might have hit Bush square in the face had the lame-duck president not ducked.
"This is a gift from the Iraqis. This is the farewell kiss, you dog," the man said, according to a pool translation.
Seconds later, the journalist hurled his other shoe with similar precision as another Iraqi journalist reached over in an attempt to stop him. "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq," he said.
After being pinned to the ground, the shoe-thrower was dragged out by security guards. Officials from Al-Baghdadia refused to comment. White House press secretary Dana Perino reported suffering a minor eye injury during the melee.
Bush himself played down the incident.
"All I can report is it is a size 10," he said jokingly.
"So what if a guy threw his shoe at me," the president added, dismissing it as "one way to gain attention."
