An Iraqi provincial council has approved a decision that would allow local authorities to demolish homes of convicted militants and banish their families from the province.

Hassan Fadaam, a Babil Provincial Council member, says the decision will only apply to convicted militants who have exhausted all possibilities of appealing their convictions.

Faddam says a court order also must precede the demolishing of a house. He did not say where a family of an offender would go to, once banished from the province.

The decision, approved Tuesday in the Babil provincial capital of Hillah, is a first in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Earlier, some pro-government Sunni tribes have demolished houses of those they accused of cooperating with the Islamic State group after its 2014 blitz.