Al Zaidi emerges as hero of resistance.

Baghdad: Al Baghdadia television journalist Munthadhar Al Zaidi emerges as the hero of angry Arabs and his chosen weapon become the symbol of resistance.

US military patrol in Najaf was pelted with shoes by Shia protesters, as crowds gathered around Iraq brandishing footwear and demanding the release of Muntadhar al-Zaidi, the television reporter whose attack on Bush at a Baghdad press conference on Sunday made him the toast of the radical Arab press.

Columnists noted that the gesture is a sign of particular contempt and recalled how Iraqis had removed their shoes to beat the statue of Saddam HusseinSaddam Hussein when Baghdad fell in 2003. In Bush's case, the shoes have started flying even before he relinquishes his grip on power.

Both shoes missed their target - one went high, the president ducked the other - and Bush did his best to laugh the whole incident off. "I saw his sole," he joked. But Bush is unlikely ever to escape the image of him cowering behind a lectern watched by an unruffled Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-MalikiNuri al-Maliki. The humiliating scene will doubtless be played and replayed whenever his Iraq record is assessed.

The 28-year-old journalist at the centre of the storm appears to have made his name. The world saw Zaidi's shoes fly and heard his cry: "That is a farewell kiss, you dog." Last night, the shoes were being held as evidence and Zaidi was being questioned, facing a possible two years in prison or a hefty fine for insulting a foreign head of state. SRC:the guardian