New York Times reporter Anthony Shadid dies in Syria

New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid, who twice won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Iraq, died Thursday in eastern Syria while on a reporting assignment.

The cause of his death apparently was an asthma attack. Times photographer Tyler Hicks was with him and carried his body to Turkey, the newspaper said.

Shadid, a 43-year-old American of Lebanese descent, had a wife and two daughters. He worked previously for the Associated Press, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe. He won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 2004 and 2010 for his Iraq coverage.

Shadid had been reporting in Syria for a week, gathering information on the resistance to the Syrian government, the Times said. The exact circumstances and location of his death were unclear.

Shadid, known for covering conflicts in the Middle East, and Hicks were among four journalists detained for six days in March by Libyan forces loyal to Moammar Kadafi.