The head of the Catholic Church worldwide, Pope Francis, has revealed that he escaped two attempts on his life during his historic trip to Iraq in March 2021.
This is according to excerpts from the cleric’s autobiography, published on Tuesday in Italy.
The book reveals that the British Secret Service gave an urgent warning to the pontiff’s Vatican security detail.
“A woman packed with explosives, a young suicide bomber, was heading towards Mosul to blow herself up during the papal visit,” he wrote in “Hope”, which goes on sale in over 80 countries in January.
“And a van had also set off at great speed with the same intention,” he added.
The excerpts were published by the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
Francis, who turned 88 on Tuesday, wrote that “almost everyone advised me against” the trip to Iraq, “but I wanted to get to the bottom of things. I felt I had to do it.”
The pope made a historic three-day visit to the Arab nation in March 2021 amid intense security.
It was Francis’s first trip in 15 months and took place in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.