In Mideast, Arabs hail shoe-hurling journalist

Al-Zeidi joined Al-Baghdadia television in September 2005 after graduating from Baghdad University with a degree in communications. Two years later, he was seized by gunmen while on an assignment in a Sunni district of north Baghdad.

He was freed unharmed three days later after Iraqi television stations broadcast appeals for his release. At the time, al-Zeidi told reporters he did not know who kidnapped him or why, but his family blamed al-Qaida and said no ransom was paid.

In January he was taken again, this time arrested by American soldiers who searched his apartment building, his brother, Dhirgham, said. He was released the next day with an apology, the brother said.

Those experiences helped mold a deep resentment of both the U.S. military's presence here and Iran's pervasive influence over Iraq's cleric-dominated Shiite community, according to his family.

"He hates the American material occupation as much as he hates the Iranian moral occupation," Dhirgham said, alluding to the influence of pro-Iranian Shiite clerics in political and social life. "As for Iran, he considers the regime to be the other side of the American coin."

Daily attacks continue
Violence in Iraq has declined significantly over the past year, but daily attacks continue. A truck bomb killed at least nine police officers Monday and wounded 13 others, including two civilians, in Khan Dhari, west of Baghdad, said Dr. Omar al-Rawi at the Fallujah hospital, where the dead and wounded were taken.

Hours earlier, a female suicide bomber knocked on the front door of the home of the leader of a local chapter of the Sunni volunteer militia north of Baghdad and blew herself up, killing him, said an Iraqi police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

Also Monday, gunmen killed seven people from a single family, members of the minority Yazidi sect, when they stormed into their home in northern Iraq, police said.

More from msnbc.com White House is sued over Obama visitor logs Field Notes: How Tiger Woods betrayed me, too Your body's big enemy? You are sitting on it Bin Laden remains elusive, frustrating U.S. Peru's swiftly diminishing resource: water Send us images of your salutes to troops, friends, kin Giving back for the holiday season? Tell us how

MORE FROM MIDEAST & N. AFRICA

Mideast & N. Africa Section Front

Iran: U.N. station near border is for spying Iraq shakes up security after bombings   Ukraine OK’s $2.5 billion arms deal with Iraq Man, dog thought dead survive Baghdad blast Iran: Students, militia clash for 2nd day Mideast & N. Africa Section Front   Add Mideast & N. Africa headlines to your news reader: