Thousands of Iraqis have taken to the streets to demand the release of a reporter who threw his shoes at President George W.Bush. ! The protests came as suicide bombers and gunmen targeted Iraqi police, and US-allied Sunni guards and civilians, in a series of attacks that killed at least 17 people and wounded more than a dozen others, officials said.
An Iraqi official said the journalist, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, was being held by Iraqi security yesterday and interrogated about whether anybody had paid him to throw his shoes at Mr Bush during a press conference in Baghdad on Monday.
He was also being tested for alcohol and drugs, and his shoes were being held as evidence, the official said.
His brother said the reporter had a broken arm and ribs after being struck by Iraqi security agents. Durgham Zaidi was unable to say whether his brother had sustained the injuries while being overpowered during the protest against Mr Bush's visit to Baghdad or while in custody later.
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.
Al-Zeidi was immediately wrestled to the ground by Iraqi security guards after throwing the shoes, But the incident raised fears of a security lapse in the heavily guarded Green Zone where the press conference took place. Reporters were repeatedly searched and asked to show identification before entering the compound, which houses Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office and the US embassy.
Newspapers across the Arab world printed front-page photos of Mr Bush ducking the flying shoes, and satellite TV stations aired the incident, which was hailed by the President's many critics in the region.
Many are fed up with US policy and still angry over Mr Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.
A doctor in the West Bank town of Nablus, Wafa Khayat, 48, called the attack ''a message to Bush and all the US policymakers that they have to stop killing and humiliating people''.
Al-Zeidi's TV station, Al-Baghdadia, repeatedly aired pleas to release the reporter while showing footage of explosions and playing background music that denounced the US military presence in Iraq. AP