Baghdad: Iraq’s most important Shiite religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, called on Friday for greater professionalism and planning by government forces and allied militias in fighting Daesh terrorists.
Al Sistani, who speaks for millions of Iraqis and has a worldwide following, also urged greater participation of Sunni residents in Daesh-controlled areas of Salah Al Deen and Anbar provinces in the fight.
In Salah Al Deen, Iraqi security forces and mainly Shiite militia are fighting to dislodge the insurgents from Saddam Hussain’s hometown, Tikrit, which they overran last summer.
Some local Sunni tribes are supporting the efforts to retake Tikrit, where government and allied forces have not made any advances since last Friday.
“[The] leaders must have more professional and correct military planning in advancing to liberate areas that remain under control of the criminal Daesh,” Al Sistani’s spokesman Shaikh Abdul Mahdi Karbala’i said during a Friday sermon.
Some Iraqi officials have said more air strikes are needed in Tikrit, around 160km north of Baghdad, but a senior military source in the coalition on Thursday said no request to that effect had been made.
Daesh posted a video on Friday purporting to show the beheading of three Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq and threatening to kill dozens more captives.
