In an excerpt from his forthcoming autobiography published on Tuesday, the 16th of December, Pope Francis reveals that three years ago, during his visit to Iraq – his first to the country and perhaps the riskiest foreign trip of his 11-year pontificate – a suicide bomber plot to kill him was foiled by UK intelligence, report Reuters and the BBC.
Pope Francis said that after landing in Baghdad in March 2021, police informed him that at least two suicide bombers had planned to bomb one of his events.
The visit to Iraq came after years of sectarian violence, fighting between Shia and Sunni Muslims, and persecution of religious minorities, in particular the Christian community, which had shrunk dramatically and had been targeted by the Islamic State group and other Sunni extremists.
In his autobiography, the Pope writes that “almost everyone advised me not to make” the visit, but that he felt he “had to do it”.
He writes that the plot was discovered by British intelligence services who alerted the Iraqi police, who in turn informed his security service when he had landed.
“A woman draped in explosives, a young kamikaze, went to Mosul to blow herself up during the Pope’s visit,” the pontiff wrote, according to an extract from a book published in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. “A van was also on its way at full speed with the same intention.”
The Pope said that the next day he asked a security official what had happened to the would-be bombers.
“The commander replied laconically “They are no more”,” Francis wrote. “The Iraqi police had intercepted them and blown them up.”
During the trip, the Vatican provided little information about the Pope’s security preparations. It is known that at the time Iraq had deployed thousands of extra security personnel to protect Francis.
Many of the activities during his visit, which took place as restrictions on the Covid-19 pandemic were being relaxed, were restricted to a limited number of people.
Pope Francis’ new autobiography, “Hope”, will be published on the 14th of January. The Pope also published a memoir in March this year.