Famed ‘NY Times’ Reporter Anthony Shadid Dead at Age 43
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Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post(NEW YORK) — New York Times reporter Anthony Shadid, considered one of the greatest foreign correspondents of his generation, died Thursday while covering the conflict in Syria. He was 43.
A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Shadid, who was an American of Lebanese descent, sneaked into the country a week earlier to cover the resistance movement that has been in a life-and-death struggle with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime over the past year.
According to the Times, Shadid died as the result of an asthma attack that his father, Buddy Shadid, said was brought on by walking behind horses that were used by guides that allowed him and photographer Tyler Hicks to slip into Syria from Turkey.
Hicks, who brought Shadid’s body back to Turkey, said the correspondent actually suffered two asthma attacks over the past week, the second of which was so severe that it killed him.
Shadid, who regularly reported from war zones, including Iraq and Libya, seem to relish danger even as he was shot in the West Bank a decade ago and was kidnapped in Libya last year during the uprising against the late Col. Moammar Gadhafi.
Praising Shadid, Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger said in a statement, “Anthony was one of our generation’s finest reporters. He was also an exceptionally kind and generous human being. He brought to his readers an up-close look at the globe’s many war-torn regions, often at great personal risk. We were fortunate to have Anthony as a colleague, and we mourn his death.”
Shadid leaves behind a wife and two children.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio