BRITISH spies foiled an attempted suicide bomb assassination of Pope Francis on his Iraq visit.
UK intelligence services tipped off the Iraqi government about plans to kill the Pontiff during the trip.
The Pope revealed the incident in an extract from his upcoming memoir, Hope, out next year.
Upon his arrival in Baghdad, he was informed that a woman was en route to Mosul wearing a suicide vest with intentions to detonate it during the papal visit.
A truck packed with explosives was discovered heading in the same direction with the same goal.
His trip to Iraq was the first by a pontiff to the country and was high risk due to security and the ongoing Covid pandemic.
He said the Iraqi police had “detonated” the two bombs before they could reach him.
In a piece released by the Italian publication Corriere Della Sera, the Pope shared, “The day after, I inquired with the Vatican’s Gendarmerie about the two suicide bombers, and the commander responded, ‘They are no longer in the area.’
“The Iraqi police had intercepted and detonated them.
“That, too, was very striking to me.
“This, too, was the poisoned fruit of war.”
Pope Francis, 88, has gone on more than 40 foreign trips since he became leader of the Catholic church in 2013.
