Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric urges more professionalism in fight against IS

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's most important Shi'ite religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called on Friday for greater professionalism and planning by government forces and allied militias in fighting Islamic State insurgents. "(The) leaders must have more professional and correct military planning in advancing to liberate areas that remain under control of the criminal IS," Sistani's spokesman Sheikh Abdul Mehdi Karbala'i said during a Friday sermon. (Reporting by Maggie Fick; Editing by Hugh Lawson)