BAGHDAD – Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets yesterday to demand the release of a reporter who threw his shoes at US president George W Bush.
The protests came as Arabs across many parts of the Middle East hailed the journalist as a hero and praised his insult as a proper send-off to the US president.
In parallel with the demonstrations suicide bombers and gunmen targeted Iraqi police, US-allied Sunni guards and civilians in attacks that killed at least 17 and wounded more than a dozen others, officials said.
Journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi, who was kidnapped by militants last year, was being held by Iraqi security, said an Iraqi official.
“This is a farewell kiss, you dog,” Mr al-Zeidi yelled in Arabic as he threw his shoes. “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.” Mr Al-Zeidi was immediately wrestled to the ground by Iraqi security guards.
Showing the sole of your shoe to someone in the Arab world is a sign of extreme disrespect, and throwing your shoes is even worse. Iraqis whacked a statue of Saddam with their shoes after US marines toppled it to the ground following the 2003 invasion.
Newspapers across the Arab world printed front-page photographs of Mr Bush ducking the flying shoes, and satellite TV stations repeatedly aired the incident.
“Iraq considers Sunday as the international day for shoes,” said a joking text message circulating around the Saudi capital Riyadh.
Palestinian journalists in the West Bank town of Ramallah joked about who would be brave enough to toss their shoes at secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, another US official widely disliked in the region.
Mr Al-Zeidi’s invective was echoed by Arabs across the Middle East who are disillusioned with US policy in the region and still angry over Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
Mr al-Zeidi’s TV station, Al-Baghdadia, repeatedly aired pleas to release the reporter, while showing footage of explosions and playing background music denouncing the US in Iraq.
Violence in Iraq has declined significantly over the past year, but daily attacks continue.
At least nine Iraqi police officers were killed and 13 others, including two civilians, were wounded yesterday in a truck bomb in Khan Dhari, west of Baghdad, according to Dr Omar al-Rawi at the Fallujah hospital, where the dead and wounded were taken. – (AP)