UK Intelligence Foils Assassination Plot Against Pope

According to his planned memoirs, British intelligence tipped off authorities about a plot to kill Pope Francis when he was in Iraq.

According to the Pope, he was informed that two suicide bombers were targeting an event he was scheduled to attend after arriving in Baghdad in March 2021.

He claimed in quotes from the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that both perpetrators were later apprehended and slain.

The three-day visit, which was accompanied by a heavy security operation, was the first time a pope had ever visited Iraq during the coronavirus outbreak.

Iraq had seen a rise in sectarian violence in the previous years, including persecution of religious minorities and clashes between Shia and Sunni Muslims.

As a result of being specifically targeted by the Islamic State organization and other Sunni extremists, the country’s Christian population had drastically decreased.

The Pope claims that “almost everyone advised me against” the visit in passages from his memoirs, but he felt he “had to do it.”

According to him, British intelligence discovered the plot and alerted Iraqi police, who then informed his security detail when he landed.

“A woman packed with explosives, a young suicide bomber, was heading towards Mosul to blow herself up during the papal visit,” according to him.

“And a van had also set off at great speed with the same intention.”

The Pope continues by saying that the next day he inquired about the whereabouts of the potential attackers from a security official.

“They are no more,” the [official] laconically retorted. He stated, “They had been intercepted and blown up by the Iraqi police.”

The publication date of the book, Hope, is set for January 14.

A request for response from the Vatican was not immediately answered, the Reuters news agency said.