SAT: Hostage release


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Length: 2:10

TONY HARRIS: And we are just learning that a Sunni lawmaker has been released by her captors nearly two months after she was kidnapped with her seven bodyguards. Michael Ware is with us from Baghdad. Michael, we're not used to these situations ending this well. Give us the update, the latest information that you have, sir.

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Sunni member of parliament Tayseer al-Mashhadani was kidnapped almost two months ago, sparking an uproar within the Iraqi parliament with Sunni members of the house threatening to boycott the proceedings and to withdraw from the cabinet has just been released according to government officials and Iraqi state television.

This is a very interesting development here in Iraq. Mashhadani, one of the few women in parliament and also a Sunni representing the minority Sunni block. Remember, of course, the main stay of the insurgency is Sunni, so she was seen to be as part of their voice in parliament.

Now, when she was abducted on the first of July, according to reports at the time, it was in an area controlled by one of the rival Shia militias which are imbedded within the government. You need to understand that here in Iraq, here in Baghdad, every suburb, every district is divided up. The currency of politics is still found at the end of the barrel of a gun.

So each suburb is controlled. The Sunni politicians claim that because she was intercepted in that area, allegedly by men in government uniforms, they claimed that a militia within the government or allied to the government was involved. However, we now see that today as the reconciliation process pushed by the Americans and supported by the prime minister -- al-Maliki -- began, she has suddenly been released. Tony?

HARRIS: CNN's Michael Ware for us in Baghdad. Michael, thank you.