Iraq’s parliament confident as first session starts off

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq’s interim parliament opened its first session Wednesday amid mortar fire, kidnapping dramas and a court appearance by one of it members, former Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi.

Despite such reminders of Iraq’s difficulties, members of the newly appointed National Council said they were confident they could guide the country to democratic elections in January.

They paid little mind to the mortar and rocket attacks thudding nearby, which injured one Iraqi civilian at a checkpoint only a few hundred yards from the gathering in Baghdad’s American-held Green Zone.

“Today we witness a vital step on the way of the democratic process, and of building up our new Iraq,” said Rosh Shawais, vice president of the council, which plays a mostly advisory role to the government of Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. “It is a historical step.”

As the council met, Iraqi kidnappers freed seven truck drivers from India, Kenya and Egypt and worry grew about the fate of two French journalists held by a violent fundamentalist group. In addition, an Islamist group announced that it had kidnapped a Jordanian in Iraq and cautioned anyone against cooperating with U.S.-led forces, Al-Jazeera satellite television reported.

The truck drivers, who had been held for six weeks, were freed after their employer, Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co., acceded to kidnappers’ demands to cease operations in Iraq, Iraqi negotiators said. The company’s chairman told reporters late Wednesday that the company had paid a ransom but planned to continue operations in Iraq.

“We paid half a million dollars in order to release the hostages, and in the past we have paid other sums,” Chairman Saeed Dashti said, apparently referring to other payments made to the kidnappers.

Insurgents have used kidnapping as a tactic in their attempts to disrupt the U.S.-funded reconstruction effort. On Tuesday, a group calling itself the Ansar al Sunna Army was shown on video carrying out what it said were the executions of 12 Nepalese who had come to work in Iraq as contractors for a Jordanian company. The announcement led to civil unrest in Katmandu, the Nepalese capital, that continued Wednesday, resulting in the death of one man injured in clashes with police.

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