Top Shi'ite cleric urges restraint in assault on Iraq's Falluja
BAGHDAD- Iraq's top Shi'ite Muslim cleric urged government forces battling to retake Falluja from ISIS militants to spare civilians trapped in the city on Baghdad's western approaches.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's appeal reflected concerns that a large civilian death toll in the battle for the mainly Sunni Muslim city could aggravate sectarian tensions in Iraq. The Baghdad government has been led by Shi'ites since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein, a member of the Sunni minority.
Sistani added his voice to many calls for restraint in the battle launched on Monday to retake Falluja, the first Iraqi city to fall under the control of the ultra-hardline Sunni ISIS, in January 2014.
