Baghdad, Iraq ? Standing before a touchstone Koranic verse about cooperation and addressing an Iraqi people bruised but unbeaten on their march toward democracy, Iraqi leaders Wednesday convened the nation’s first freely elected parliament body in half a century.

Nearly all 275 members of the Transitional National Assembly braved threats and worked their way through intense security to attend the session in a flower-festooned auditorium in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone.

The assembly members spoke of rights and freedom. They took an oath of honesty and dedication. Though not quite ready to make laws, they reveled in making history.

“The elections gained the respect of the world,” said interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, one of the few Sunni Muslims to win a seat in the assembly. “This is a critical stage: Either we all win or, God forbid, we all lose.”

The meeting was short, reserved and mostly symbolic. The parliament’s two main groups are stuck in negotiations to form a government. And until that gets done, the assembly can move little on its main tasks: approving a president, prime minister and Cabinet and, what will be more far-reaching, writing a constitution.

All in good time, delegates said. The assembly’s opening session was in part a chance to mark how far Iraq had come since Saddam Hussein.

“The Iraqi people have succeeded in removing the totalitarian regime with their blood and souls,” said Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, expressing gratitude to American, British and other Western forces who invaded Iraq two years ago to depose Saddam. “Now we all have a serious mission, to maintain the unity of all Iraqi people.”

Members are sworn in during the opening session of Iraq's National Assembly in Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq's first freely elected parliament in half a century began its opening session Wednesday, a major milestone on the road to forming a new government in the insurgent-racked country.

The new Iraqi leaders got a reminder Wednesday of their most crucial challenge: defeating an insurgency that wants them out of power and foreign forces out of Iraq.

Shortly before the parliament convened in the Green Zone’s conference center, insurgent mortars struck a few hundred yards away. They set off a series of loud explosions but caused no injuries, the U.S. military said.