Baghdad, December 15
It gives fresh meaning to the phrase shooed away.

President George W. Bush ducked a pair of shoes hurled at his head — one shoe after the other — in the middle of a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Both shoes narrowly missed their target and thumped loudly against the wall behind the leaders.

“Don’t worry about it,” the president said as the room erupted into chaos. Iraqi reporters started shouting what Bush later explained were apologies for the incident.

“So what if the guy threw a shoe at me?” Bush said, comparing the action to political protests in the US.

“If you want the facts, it was a size 10,” he joked.

The shoe attack came as Bush and al-Maliki were about to shake hands. The assailant — later identified as television correspondent Muntadar al-Zaidi — leapt from his chair and hurled his footwear at the president, who was about 20 feet away.

“This is a farewell kiss, you dog,” he yelled in Arabic.

The crowd descended on al-Zaidi, who works for Al-Baghdadiya television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, Egypt. He was wrestled to the ground by security officials and then hauled away, moaning as they departed the room. Later, a trail of fresh blood could be seen on the carpet, although the source was not known. Al-Baghdadia’s Baghdad manager said he had no idea what prompted his reporter to go on the attack. — AP