By Esther Tran Le: Subscribe to Esther's RSS feed
February 17, 2012 10:03 AM EST
The widely respected foreign correspondent of the New York Times, Anthony Shadid, died of an asthma attack on Thursday in Syria, according to reports.
Shadid was on assignment in Syria to collect information about the Free Syrian Army and the rebel forces opposed to President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Times photographer Tyler Hicks, was accompanying Shadid on his assignment. Although carrying medication with him, Shadid's asthma attacks kept escalating before their departure from Syria, Hicks told the New York Times.
A week before the death, Hicks and Shadid made their way into the Syria's Idlib province from Turkey. The two traveled in the middle of the night cutting through the barbed-wire fence demarcating the countries' borders. Guides on horsebacks awaited them on the other side. Hicks reported that Shadid experienced a first violent asthma attack, perhaps set off by an allergy to horses, but he was able to recover.
However, on their way out of Syria, Shadid suffered the fatal attack. Hicks attempted to revive Shadid through cardiopulmonary resuscitation but failed.
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"I stood next to him and asked if he was O.K., and then he collapsed. He was not conscious and his breathing was very faint and very shallow," Hicks told the Times.
"I could see he was no longer breathing."
After notifying Times editors, Hicks carried Shadid's body into Turkey.
Shadid's death is a great loss to the world of journalism. Friends and readers mourned him across social media platforms.
NYT's The Lede blog has recorded some Twitter remarks.
Anderson Cooper, CNN anchor, tweeted: "NYTimes reporter Anthony Shadid has died. Such a brave and smart reporter. A terrible loss. My thoughts are with his family and friends."
United States ambassador to the United Nations, Susan E. Rice, also tweeted: "Heartbroken by the loss of the NYT's Anthony Shadid in Syria. One of the world's bravest and best journalists."
"Rarely does a journalist die and the world is different, but without Shadid we will know less, and settle for less nuanced, less human truth," Peter S. Goodman, executive business editor at The Huffington Post, posted in a first tweet.
"Newspaper people often discover that when we're away, they can put out [the] paper just fine. But not this time, not without Shadid. Great void," Goodman followed.
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