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19-12-2024
LONDON/ VATICAN CITY: A plot to assassinate Pope Francis during a trip to Iraq was stopped following a tip-off from British intelligence, according to his upcoming autobiography.
The Pope writes that, after landing in Baghdad in March 2021, he was told an event at which he was set to appear was being targeted by two suicide bombers.
Both attackers were subsequently intercepted and killed, he said in excerpts published by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
The visit, which took place over three days during the coronavirus pandemic, was the first ever to Iraq by a pope and saw an intense security operation.
The years before had seen increased sectarian violence in Iraq, with fighting between Shia and Sunni Muslims as well as the persecution of religious minorities.
The country’s Christian community had shrunk dramatically, having been targeted in particular by the Islamic State group and other Sunni extremists.
In excerpts of his autobiography, the Pope says “almost everyone advised me against” the visit but he felt he “had to do it”.
He says the plot was uncovered by British intelligence, who warned Iraqi police, and they in turn told his security detail once he had touched down.
“A woman packed with explosives, a young suicide bomber, was heading towards Mosul to blow herself up during the papal visit,” he says and “a van had also set off at great speed with the same intention.”
The Pope adds that he asked a security official the following day what had happened to the would-be attackers.
“The (official) replied laconically; ‘They are no more’. The Iraqi police had intercepted them and blown them up,” he wrote.
The book, entitled Hope, is due to be published on 14 January.
The Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to media.
Francis persevered with the three-day trip to six Iraqi cities, saying at the time that he was travelling as “a pilgrim of peace”. Thousands of Christians in the north of the country were killed under the rule of Islamic State between 2014 and 2017, and hundreds of thousands more fled their homes in the face of violence and persecution.
Standing in the wreckage of a Mosul church, the pope urged the country’s dwindling Christian community to forgive the injustices against them by the extremists and to rebuild.
During the visit, about 10,000 Iraqi police were deployed to protect the pope and curfews were imposed to limit the spread of Covid-19.
The book was originally planned to come out after Francis’s death, but is instead being published to coincide with the beginning of the jubilee 2025, a year of celebrations for Catholics around the world to reconnect with their faith. The pope officially opens the event, which occurs every 25 years, on 24 December.
The Italian publisher Mondadori said Hope was the first autobiography published by a pope, although Francis has published other memoir-style books.
Francis has embarked on more than 40 overseas trips since becoming pope in 2013, his longest and most arduous being a 12-day Asia-Pacific tour in September.
On Monday, he travelled to Corsica, the first visit by a pontiff to the French Mediterranean Island. It is now normal for him to use a wheelchair or walking stick during his travels because of sciatic nerve pain and a knee problem. (Int’l News Desk)
