BAGHDAD, Dec 15: The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W. Bush in a supreme insult has suddenly become the talk of Iraq, hailed by marchers as a national hero but blasted by the government as a barbarian.

The reporter had previously made headlines only once, when he was kidnapped by unknown gunmen in 2007.

TV reporter Muntazer Al-Zaidi, who was in detention, would be sent for trial on charges of insulting the Iraqi state, said the prime minister’s media adviser.

His employer, independent al-Baghdadiya television, demanded his release and demonstrators rallied for him in Sadr City, where some threw shoes at a US convoy and called Bush “cow”.

The government said Zaidi had carried out “a barbaric and ignominious act” and demanded an apology from his television station.

At a university in Baghdad, students appeared to abandon routine classes to talk about Zaidi and his shoe-throwing. “It was the throw of the century. I believe Bush deserves what happened to him because he has not kept his promises to Iraqis,” said a Baghdad resident.—Reuters