BAGHDAD: The shoes thrown by Muntazer Al-Zaidi on Sunday missed the target and President George Bush emerged without a single bruise. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, however, was not so lucky, as she suffered an eye injury in the ensuing melee when she was hit by a microphone.

Zaidi’s family told the Associated Press that his action stemmed from his hatred of the American invasion of their country.

They expressed their pride over his defiant act. “I swear to Allah, he is a hero,” said his sister, who goes by the nickname Umm Firas, as she watched a replay of her brother’s attack on an Arabic satellite station. “May Allah protect him.”

The family insisted that Zaidi’s action was spontaneous —- perhaps motivated by the political turmoil that their brother had reported on, plus his personal brushes with violence and the threat of death that millions of Iraqis face

daily.—Agencies