Baghdad - The local council of the Iraqi province of Salahaddin agreed Saturday to raise the new national flag although most residents refused to do so, Iraqi officials said. "The 41 members of the council voted to raise the new Iraqi flag in the province," an Iraqi official told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa.
He added that 50 per cent of the members are Shiites and Kurds.
The decision to raise the new flag came two weeks after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki raised a new temporary flag, inscribed with "God is great" in Kufic, an ancient form of Arabic script, atop the cabinet building.
The old flag was red, white and black, with three stars and the words Allahu Akbar (God is great) written in the centre on a white backdrop.
The move was requested by Iraq's Kurdish minority, which felt that the old flag was associated with the regime of former dictator Saddam Hussein.
Tailors in the province refused to sew the new flag, while inhabitants refused to buy or raise it in their houses, as they consider it an attempt to eliminate Iraq's history and heritage.
The province of Salahaddin is the location of Saddam Hussein's hometown and lies some 180 kilometres north of Baghdad.
