The New York Times’ two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anthony Shadid died of an apparent asthma attack while covering a story in eastern Syria on Thursday, the newspaper reported. He was 43.
Shadid’s body was carried out of the strife-ridden country and into Turkey by his colleague, Times photographer Tyler Hicks, the newspaper revealed Thursday night.
The veteran foreign correspondent had been working in Syria for a week, developing a story on the resistance forming against President Bashar al Assad’s government.
The exact location of where Shadid died was not clear, according to The Times, adding that the Syrian government had not been notified of the reporter’s assignment.
Hicks told his employer that Shadid had problems with his asthma early Thursday, and that the problem became worse as the day went on until the fatal attack.
Shadid — who was married with two children — won a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 2004, for his coverage of the US invasion of Iraq. In 2010 he took the Pulitzer again, also for his coverage in Iraq.
“Fluent in Arabic, with a gifted eye for detail and contextual writing, Mr. Shadid captured dimensions of life in the Middle East that many others failed to see,” The Times reported.
“Mr. Shadid was a deep-thinking journalist who was not afraid to butt heads with his editors to protect a phrase, scene or quotation that he considered essential to making his point.”