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Pope
Francis
arrives
in
Baghdad
for
risky,
historic
Iraq
tour
By
Philip
Pullella,
John
Davison
reuters.com
BAGHDAD
- Pope
Francis
landed
in
Baghdad
on
Friday
for his
most
risky
foreign
trip
since
his
election
in 2012,
saying
he felt
duty-bound
to make
the
“emblematic”
visit
because
Iraq had
suffered
so much
for so
long.
An
Alitalia
plane
carrying
him, his
entourage,
a
security
detail,
and
about 75
journalists,
touched
down at
Baghdad
International
Airport
slightly
ahead of
schedule
just
before 2
p.m.
local
time.
Iraq
is
deploying
thousands
of
additional
security
personnel
to
protect
the
84-year-old
pope
during
the
visit,
which
comes
after a
spate of
rocket
and
suicide
bomb
attacks
raised
fears
for his
safety.
“I
am happy
to be
making
trips
again,”
he said
in brief
comments
to
reporters
aboard
his
plane,
alluding
to the
coronavirus
pandemic
which
has
prevented
him from
travelling.
The Iraq
trip is
his
first
outside
Italy
since
November
2019.
“This is
an
emblematic
trip and
it is a
duty
towards
a land
that has
been
martyred
for so
many
years,”
Francis
said,
before
donning
a mask
and
greeting
each
reporter
individually,
without
shaking
hands.
Francis’s
whirlwind
tour
will
take him
by
plane,
helicopter
and
possibly
armoured
car to
four
cities,
including
areas
that
most
foreign
dignitaries
are
unable
to
reach,
let
alone in
such a
short
space of
time.
He
will say
Mass at
a
Baghdad
church,
meet
Iraq’s
top
Shi’ite
Muslim
cleric
in the
southern
city of
Najaf
and
travel
north to
Mosul,
where
the army
had to
empty
the
streets
for
security
reasons
last
year for
a visit
by
Iraq’s
prime
minister.
Mosul is
a former
Islamic
State
stronghold,
and
churches
and
other
buildings
there
still
bear the
scars of
conflict.
VIOLENCE
AND HOPE
Since
the
defeat
of the
Islamic
State
militants
in 2017,
Iraq has
seen a
greater
degree
of
security,
though
violence
persists,
often in
the form
of
rocket
attacks
by
Iran-aligned
militias
on U.S.
targets,
and U.S.
military
action
in
response.
On
Wednesday
10
rockets
landed
on an
airbase
that
hosts
U.S.,
coalition
and
Iraqi
forces.
Hours
later,
Francis
reaffirmed
he would
travel
to Iraq.
Islamic
State
also
remains
a
threat.
In
January,
a
suicide
attack
claimed
by the
Sunni
militant
group
killed
32
people
in
Baghdad’s
deadliest
such
attack
for
years.
Francis
will
meet
clergy
at a
Baghdad
church
where
Islamist
gunmen
killed
more
than 50
worshippers
in 2010.
Violence
against
Iraq’s
minority
religious
groups,
especially
when a
third of
the
country
was
being
run by
Islamic
State,
has
reduced
its
ancient
Christian
community
to a
fifth of
its once
1.5
million
people.
The
pontiff
will
also
visit
Ur,
birthplace
of the
prophet
Abraham,
who is
revered
by
Christians,
Muslims
and
Jews,
and meet
Iraq’s
revered
top
Shi’ite
Muslim
cleric,
90-year-old
Grand
Ayatollah
Ali
al-Sistani.
The
meeting
with
Sistani,
who
wields
great
influence
over
Iraq’s
Shi’ite
majority
and in
the
country’s
politics,
will be
the
first by
a pope.
Some
Shi’ite
militant
groups
have
opposed
the
pope’s
visit,
framing
it as
Western
interference
in
Iraq’s
affairs,
but many
Iraqis
hope
that it
can help
foster a
fresh
view of
Iraq.
“It
might
not
change
much on
the
ground,
but at
least if
the pope
visits,
people
will see
our
country
in a
different
light,
not just
bombs
and
war,”
said Ali
Hassan,
a
30-year-old
Baghdad
resident
picking
up
relatives
at the
airport.
Reporting
by
Philip
Pullella
on the
papal
plane,
John
Davison
in
Baghdad;
Editing
by
Clarence
Fernandez
and
Gareth
Jones
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