Pope Francis dodged 2 assassination attempts during 2021 Iraq trip, autobiography reveals

Security forces thwarted a pair of assassination attempts against Pope Francis — including a suicide bomber — during his March 2021 visit to Iraq, the pontiff shared in his new memoir.The pope wrote that British security forces warned him about a young woman who was making her way to Mosul in the north of the country and planning to blow herself up during his historic visit to the Middle Eastern country.He said he was also notified about a van which “had also left at high speed with the same intention.”“When I asked the (Vatican) Gendarmerie the following day what was known about the two bombers, the commander replied laconically, ‘They are no longer there,’” an excerpt of the pope’s new autobiography “Hope” published by Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera reads in part.Francis, 88, said the would-be assassins were “intercepted” by Iraqi police, who later safely detonated the explosives.He referred to the whole frightening affair as “the poisoned fruit of war.”His trip marked the first time any pope has ever visited the war-torn country and came at a time of both heightened security alerts and risk of illness due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Pope John Paul II was set to visit Iraq in 1999 as part of a tour of the region’s major holy sites, but a diplomatic dispute between Iraq and the Holy See put an end to the plans....