| George W. Bush shoe-throwing incident | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Iraq War | |
 Bush ducks under one of al-Zaidi's shoes as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki attempts to parry it. | |
| Location | |
| Date | 14 December 2008 |
| Target | George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States |
Attack type | Shoe-throwing |
| Weapons | Pair of shoes |
| Injured | 2 (Dana Perino and Muntadhar al-Zaidi, both injuries weren’t due to the shoes) |
| Perpetrator | Muntadhar al-Zaidi |
| Motive | Retaliation for casualties of the Iraq War |
| Convictions | Assaulting a foreign head of state during an official visit |
| Sentence | 1 year in prison (released after 9 months) |
On 14 December 2008, Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi removed his shoes and threw them at United States president George W. Bush during a joint press conference with Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad, Iraq. Bush quickly ducked, avoiding being hit by either of the shoes. The second shoe collided with a U.S. flag positioned behind Bush. Al-Zaidi was subsequently grabbed, kicked, and removed from the room by security.
Al-Zaidi received a three-year prison sentence, which was reduced by two years.[1] On 15 September 2009, after nine months of imprisonment, he was released early as he had no prior criminal record.
There have since been many other shoe-throwing incidents on an international scale.