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Baghdad:
A 100-member transitional assembly intended to serve
as a watchdog over the interim Iraqi government
until January elections convened for the first time
at a ceremony in Baghdad.
The swearing-in ceremony of the National Council was
the final step in putting together a caretaker
administration after sovereignty was returned to
Iraq and interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi took
power on June 28.
But before the ceremony had even begun, a debate
broke out over the wording of the oath of office
that was only resolved after a round of haggling.
'New Iraq'
Members then walked up to the podium in groups of 10
to take the oath, standing against a backdrop of
five Iraqi flags and a banner that read: "For a new
Iraq."
"The assembly "is an important and positive step
toward achieving and realising the dreams of the
Iraqi people," said Mohammed Bahr al-Ulloum, who
chaired the event.
Sticking point
The mechanism and timing of choosing the council's
President emerged as one of the main sticking
points.
After hours of speeches and debates, members finally
picked Fuad Masoum, an ethnic Kurd who last month
chaired a national conference of 1,300 Iraqis that
chose many of the assembly's members, to lead the
body in a last-minute show of hands.
The council has the power to approve the national
budget and veto some government decisions with a
two-thirds majority vote. Masoum said the exchanges
and loaded discussions were a sign that democracy
was taking root in Iraq. (AP)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP)- Militants released seven
foreign hostages Wednesday after their employer paid
$500,000 ransom, while France mustered support from
Muslims at home and abroad to push for the release
of two French journalists still held captive in
Iraq.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, said a U.S. airstrike
late Wednesday hit a suspected safehouse used by
followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
in Fallujah. Witnesses said 17 people, including
three children, were killed and six wounded. U.S.
forces have bombed numerous targets in the city,
which is a center of Sunni Muslim insurgents.
Earlier in the day, gunmen fired at a convoy
carrying Ahmad Chalabi, a prominent Iraqi politician
and one-time U.S. ally, wounding two of his
bodyguards just hours before he joined other
officials for the swearing-in ceremony of Iraq's new
transitional assembly.
The first meeting of the National Council, which is
to act as a watchdog body over the interim
government and help shepherd Iraq toward January
elections, was marred by a nearby mortar barrage
that wounded one person, the U.S. military said.
Militants waging a violent 16-month-old insurgency
have turned to kidnapping foreigners in recent
months as part of their campaign to drive out
coalition forces and contractors. Other groups have
taken hostages in hopes of extorting ransom,
sometimes masking their greed under a cloak of
politics.
The group holding the seven truck drivers, which
called itself The Holders of the Black Banners, had
initiall demanded that their employer stop working
in Iraq, that Iraqi detainees be released and that
compensation be paid to victims of fighting in
Fallujah.
By last week, the group had dropped all other
demands and said they just wanted a commitment from
the company, Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co., to
stop working here, which it soon received.
But after the seven men - one Egyptian, three
Indians and three Kenyans - were let go and whisked
out of the country, the company revealed the
kidnappers had demanded $6 million to $7 million in
ransom. In the end, a team of employees drove to an
unspecified location where the drivers were held and
paid $500,000 to secure their release, KGL chief
executive officer Said Dashti said.
"They (the kidnappers) were not trying to make a
political statement, they were purely
extortionists," he said.
The announcement the men were freed sparked
celebrations in their home countries. "My joy today
is as big as the whole world. I feel he is born
again," said Nadia al-Shanawani, mother of Egyptian
hostage Mohammed Ali Sanad.
In a video given to news agencies after the release,
the seven hostages were shown standing against a
wall as a masked man shook each man's hand, hugged
him and handed him a Quran, another Islamic book and
what appeared to be a CD or cassette.
"We warn all companies that work with the occupiers
of the black destiny awaiting them in Iraq if they
continue with this work," a voiceover said.
Meanwhile, France called on Arab and Islamic leaders
to continue their push to secure the release of
French reporters Christian Chesnot and Georges
Malbrunot, held by a militant group that demanded
France annul its ban on Muslim head scarves in
French public schools.
Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, who has been
shuttling across the Middle East to rally support,
arrived in Qatar on Wednesday. A French special
envoy was sent to Baghdad to pursue contacts with
the hostage-takers.
Representatives of the French Council for the Muslim
Faith, which serves as a link to the French
government, left Wednesday for Baghdad in hopes of
retrieving the journalists.
A chorus of worldwide Muslim voices - from human
rights groups to hard-line religious clerics - has
pleaded for their release in an unprecedented
display of unity.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which claimed
responsibility for deadly twin bombings in Israel on
Tuesday, appealed for their freedom. Libyan leader
Moammar Gadhafi said kidnapping foreigners in Iraq
was "terrorism," and Arab League Secretary-General
Amr Moussa reiterated his plea for their release.
The chorus of appeals stood in sharp contrast to the
muted reaction to the slaughter of 12 Nepalese
workers held hostage by a different militant group
in Iraq. A video of the mass killing was posted on
an Islamic Web site Tuesday.
The slayings caused a storm of protest in Nepal,
where the government imposed a curfew Wednesday
after thousands of protesters ransacked a mosque and
fought with police. But the killings were only
mildly criticized by some of the same Islamic
leaders demanding the release of the French
journalists.
"We wished (the Nepalese) could have been released
by the kidnappers so that they could have become
messengers for their brothers to warn them not to
come to Iraq," Mohammed Bashar al-Faidi, a spokesman
for the Muslim Scholars Association, a Sunni group
believed to have links to insurgents, said Tuesday
after harshly condemning the French kidnapping.
Many Iraqi groups appreciate France's opposition to
the U.S.-led war in Iraq, but see the Nepalese as
contractors whose presence aided coalition forces.
Meanwhile, Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi
ordered an investigation into the attack on
Chalabi's convoy, condemning it as "an attempt to
launch a campaign of terror and destabilization"
aimed at political and religious figures.
Hours later, an unharmed Chalabi joined the National
Council for its swearing-in ceremony in the Baghdad
convention center. The council later chose Fuad
Masoum, a Kurd, as its president. He had presided at
a national conference last month that helped choose
the council's members.
The 100-member assembly must approve the national
budget and can veto some government decisions with a
two-thirds majority vote. It is intended as an
important step toward representative government
before elections.
As the meeting convened, several mortar rounds
exploded near the convention center inside the
heavily guarded Green Zone enclave, wounding one
person, the U.S. military said.
Two rounds later landed in the Green Zone itself,
sending up a plume of gray smoke.
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