gotchanewsdaily.com 
When Francis arrived in Baghdad, he wrote that British intelligence had tipped off the Iraqi authorities, who in turned informed Vatican military police, about a woman wearing explosives heading to Mosul with the intention of blowing herself up during the papal visit. “And a van had also set off at full speed with the same intent,” Francis added.
Francis persisted with his tour of northern Iraq, visiting the crumbling shell of a destroyed church and leading prayers with the region’s Christian population, which had been displaced by Islamic State group militants.
The pope, who turned 88 on Tuesday, wrote that he later asked his Vatican security detail what happened to the suicide bomber. “The commander replied laconically ‘They’re no longer here,’” Francis wrote. “Iraqi police had intercepted them and made them explode.”
Francis, a former Argentinian priest and the first non-European pontiff in more than a millennium, was elected by the papal conclave in 2013 following Benedict XVI’s resignation.
He has spent much of his papacy visiting regions far from Rome and concluded a tour of Asia and Oceania in September, though his ailing health has forced him to cancel some engagements.
