A new restaurant has drawn controversy in the Kurdish city of Duhok in the Idlib region of Iraq over its name - Hitler.

The owner of the restaurant chose that name deliberately, but claims to have done so out of a desire for publicity, not to endorse anything the leader of Nazi Germany said or did.

"Hitler was a dictator in Germany and it has nothing to do with me," explained restaurant owner Rivar Mohammed. "That's right. I called my restaurant Hitler, but that doesn't mean I love him. I did it just so people would hear about the restaurant."

The name has sparked a storm of criticism, and not just in Iraq. Many on social media were outraged, with some questioning how the local authorities could approve such a name. But Mohammed claimed that the the authorities did not pay any attention when they gave their approval: "When I submitted the paperwork for the restaurant listing seven months ago, no one said anything and did not encounter any negative reaction - not from the government, from the police, not from anyone - everything went perfectly normally."