Plot to assassinate Pope Francis with suicide bomb in Iraq foiled by British spies

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.

He said when he arrived in Baghdad they had been told that a woman had been wearing a suicide vest and heading towards Mosul with a plan to kill herself 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 an article published by ­Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, the Pope wrote: “When I asked the (Vatican) Gendarmerie the following day what was known about the two bombers, the commander replied, ‘They are no longer there’.

“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.