As Interim Council meets8230;

A US-backed Iraqi governing council held its inaugural meeting on Sunday, stressing the start of a new era by abolishing national holidays t...

A US-backed Iraqi governing council held its inaugural meeting on Sunday, stressing the start of a new era by abolishing national holidays that honoured Saddam Hussein and creating a new one to mark his downfall.

The 25-member interim council has the ability to appoint ministers, approve the national budget and review laws, although ultimate authority remains with the occupying powers that have ruled Iraq since US-led forces toppled Saddam.

8216;8216;Saddam has been tossed into the rubbish bin of history and will not be coming back,8217;8217; said Mohammad Bahr al-Uloum, a Shiite cleric and council member, many of whose relatives were killed by Saddam8217;s government. 8216;8216;There are defining moments in history and today, for Iraq, is definitely one of them,8217;8217; Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN8217;s Special Representative for Iraq, told the council.

The new council is composed of 13 Shiites, five Sunni Arabs, five Kurds, an Assyrian Christian and a Turkmen. Three members are women and 16 have either returned from exile or were in an autonomous Kurdish area outside Saddam8217;s control.

8216;8216;The launch of the governing council will mean that Iraqis play a more central role in running their country,8217;8217; US administrator Paul Bremer said in a statement late on Saturday. Washington hopes daily attacks on US troops in mainly Sunni Central Iraq will decline if Iraqis feel the US and British occupying powers are empowering local leaders.

As the council met in a government building in Baghdad, the US military said it had launched 8216;8216;Operation Ivy Serpent8217;8217; to prevent militants staging anti-American attacks on upcoming anniversaries linked to Iraqi nationalism and Saddam. The latest military operation, launched on Saturday night, is the fourth conducted by the US military to crack down on armed resistance to the occupation.

US officers say they have intelligence that assailants are planning attacks to coincide with anniversaries including a July 14 coup in 1958 against a British-backed monarchy, Saddam assuming the presidency on July 16, 1979, and a revolution staged by his Baath Party on July 17, 1968.

Story continues below this ad

Each year since 1968, July 17 has been celebrated as a national holiday. Pomp and circumstance have marked the date, with Saddam8217;s ubiquitous image even more frequent than usual on television and radio and in the streets. In the new Iraq, July 17 is no longer a national holiday.

Instead, the traditional date of July 14 8212; celebrating the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958 8212; has been retained as a kind of an Independence Day. Reuters