Pope Francis revealed in a forthcoming memoir an assassination plot he faced in Iraq in 2021, according to media reports Tuesday.
The pope, who turned 88 on Tuesday, noted in the book that will be published in January that he went to Iraq in March 2021, despite recommendations against it, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported after receiving excerpts.
Iraq’s second city, Mosul, was under the control of the Daesh/ISIS terror group between 2014 and 2017.
British intelligence informed Vatican police that a kamikaze attack was plotted in Mosul during Francis’ visit, and cautioned that a young woman equipped with explosives was plotting an attack.
Iraqi police intervened and neutralized the suspect. Vatican police later notified the pontiff.
Francis wrote that he asked his security detail what happened to the suspect. “The commander replied laconically ‘They’re no longer here,'” he wrote. “Iraqi police had intercepted them and made them explode.”