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Iraq has deployed thousands of additional security forces to protect Pope Francis during his four-day visit, which begins on Friday (March 5, 2021) and comes after a wave of missile and bomb attacks spawned concern for the Pope’s safety.
A senior security official briefed on the security plan said participating forces had received training to deal with worst-case scenarios, from street clashes to bombings and even missile attacks.
These hypothetical threats were part of a large-scale exercise in preparation for the visit, which will last from March 5-8, which is the first papal visit to Iraq. In addition to concerns about violence, the country witnessed an increase in COVID-19 cases, further complicating preparations for the visit.
Show solidarity with Christians
The pope said he is visiting to show solidarity with Christians in Iraq, who numbered around 300,000 people, or about a fifth of their number before the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and the violence that followed Islamist fighters. . Former Pope John Paul II was about to visit Iraq, but the visit was canceled in 2000 after talks with then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein failed.
In the last two months, attacks against civilian and military targets have increased. In January, Baghdad witnessed its first major suicide attack in three years, when two attackers blew themselves up in a crowded market and killed at least 32 people.
He insists on visiting despite the security situation.
On Wednesday morning, ten missiles landed on an air base that housed US, Iraqi and international coalition forces. A few hours after this attack, the Pope confirmed that he was heading to Iraq. The 84-year-old pope will visit four cities, including Mosul, which was a stronghold of “ISIS” and whose churches and buildings still suffer from the effects of the conflict. The Pope will also visit Ur, the birthplace of Prophet Abraham, and meet Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani (90 years old), the supreme authority of the Shiites of Iraq.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein described Pope Francis’ visit to Iraq this Thursday afternoon as a “great event” in Iraqi history. “We await with great nostalgia the arrival of the pontiff on his historic visit to the land of Iraq,” the Foreign Minister told reporters in the press center of the Hotel Babylon.
“This visit is historic in the sense of the word, and the Iraqi people, with all their religious and national components, await it after the Iraqi confrontation with ISIS,” he added. Hussein said that a large number of journalists and international media representatives came to Iraq, in defiance of the Corona pandemic, to cover this historic visit.
AS / Ah (Reuters, dpa)
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