Assassination plot: Pope reveals British intelligence saved his life

Rome: Pope Francis turned 88 on Tuesday and marked the occasion with revelations that he almost didn’t make it. According to excerpts from his upcoming autobiography, suicide bombers had planned to attack him during his 2021 visit to Iraq but were killed before striking.

Italian daily Corriere della Sera and The New York Times ran excerpts of Hope: The Autobiography, written with Italian author Carlo Musso, which is being released in more than 80 countries next month.

Pope Francis is presented with a cake by Valentina Alazraki, correspondent for TeleVisa Univision, to celebrate his birthday, on a flight back from Ajaccio, Corsica.Credit: AP

In the Italian excerpts, Francis recalled his historic March 2021 trip to Iraq, the first ever by a pope. COVID-19 was still raging, and security concerns were high, especially in Mosul. The devastated northern city had been the headquarters of Islamic State militants, whose horrific reign had largely emptied the region of its Christian communities.

According to the book, British intelligence informed Iraqi police as soon as Francis arrived in Baghdad that a woman wearing explosives was heading to Mosul and was planning to blow herself up during the papal visit. “And that a truck was heading there fast with the same intention,” Francis says in the book.

The visit went ahead as planned, albeit under tight security, and became one of the most poignant of all of Francis’ foreign trips. Standing in the wreckage of a Mosul church, Francis urged Iraq’s Christians to forgive the injustices against them by Muslim extremists and to rebuild.

Pope Francis leads a prayer for the victims of war at Hosh al-Bieaa Church Square in Mosul in 2021.Credit: AP

In the book, Francis said he later asked his Vatican security detail what became of the suicide bombers.

“The commander replied laconically, ‘They’re no longer here’,” Francis writes. “Iraqi police had intercepted them and made them explode. This struck me as well: Even this is the poisonous fruit of war.”

Iraqi security officials clear the road before the car carrying Pope Francis leaves the square where he led a prayer session in Mosul, once the de-facto capital of Islamic State.Credit: AP

The book, originally planned to be published after Francis’ death, is coming out at the start of the Vatican’s big Holy Year, which Francis will officially inaugurate on Christmas Eve.

According to Italian publisher Mondadori, Hope is the first autobiography ever published by a pope. Francis, however, has published other first-person, memoir-style books or book-length interviews with biographers and journalists, including Life: My Story Through History, published earlier this year.

AP