Pope Francis begins historic Iraq visit despite virus and security risks

Pope Francis has arrived in Iraq for the first ever papal visit there, and his first international trip since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Covid and security fears have made this his riskiest visit yet, but the 84-year-old insisted he was "duty bound".

He will try to reassure the dwindling Christian community and foster inter-religious dialogue - meeting Iraq's most revered Shia Muslim cleric.

The Pope will also celebrate Mass at a stadium in Irbil in the north.

About 10,000 Iraqi Security Forces personnel are being deployed to protect the Pope, while round-the-clock curfews are also being imposed to limit the spread of Covid.

Iraq's PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi greeted the Pope at the airport. On the plane, Francis said he was happy to be travelling again, adding: "This is an emblematic trip and it is a duty towards a land that has been martyred for so many years."

He had earlier said Iraqi Christians could not be "let down for a second time", after Pope John Paul II cancelled plans for a trip in 1999 when talks with then-President Saddam Hussein's government broke down.

In the two decades since then, one of the world's oldest Christian communities has seen its numbers plummet from 1.4 million to about 250,000, less than 1% of the population.

Many have fled abroad to escape the violence that has plagued the country since the US-led invasion in 2003 that ousted Saddam.

Tens of thousands were also displaced when Islamic State (IS) militants overran northern Iraq in 2014, destroying their historic churches, seizing their property, and giving them the choice to pay a tax, convert, leave or face death.

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What does the Pope hope to achieve?
The head of the Roman Catholic Church aims to embolden persecuted Christians and call for peace in meetings with political and other religious leaders, reports the BBC's Mark Lowen, who is travelling with him.

Addressing the Iraqi people in a video message on the eve of his trip, Pope Francis said he was "coming as a pilgrim, as a penitent pilgrim, to implore from the Lord forgiveness and reconciliation after years of war and terrorism".

He continued: "I am coming among you also as a pilgrim of peace... seeking fraternity and prompted by the desire to pray together and to walk together, also with our brothers and sisters of other religious traditions, in the steps of Father Abraham, who joins in one family Muslims, Jews and Christians."

Ahead of the visit, Christians who fled to Irbil in Iraq's Kurdistan region after the IS invaded the Nineveh Plain to the west in 2014, urged the Pope to help them.

Alla Hana Shaba told the Rudow network: "We want the Pope to help the displaced find a place to settle. We have lost our houses and money."

Another Christian from the north, Saad al-Rassam, told AFP: "We're hoping the Pope will explain to the government that it needs to help its people. We have suffered so much, we need the support."

Who are Iraq's Christians?
People in what is now Iraq embraced Christianity in the 1st Century AD
According to the US state department, Christian leaders estimate there are fewer than 250,000 Christians remaining in Iraq, with the largest population - at least 200,000 - living in the Nineveh Plain and Kurdistan Region in the north of the country
Approximately 67% of those are Chaldean Catholics, whose Eastern-rite Church retains its own liturgy and traditions but recognises the authority of the pope in Rome. Another 20% are members of the Assyrian Church of the East, believed to be the oldest in Iraq
The rest are Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Armenian Apostolic, as well as Anglican, Evangelical and other Protestants
On Friday, Francis will meet bishops and other clergy at a Syriac Catholic church in the capital, Our Lady of Salvation, where 52 Christians and police were killed in an attack by jihadists from a precursor group to IS in 2010.

On Saturday, the Pope will fly south to the Shia holy city of Najaf, where he will visit Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. The 90-year-old is the prime marja, or spiritual reference, for millions of Shia in Iraq and elsewhere.

Pope Francis will then attend an interreligious meeting at the ancient site of Ur, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of the Prophet Abraham.

Sunday will see him travel to the northern city of Mosul. He will say a prayer of suffrage in Church Square for the victims of the war with IS, which left tens of thousands of civilians dead.

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What is the Pope's schedule?
Due to security concerns and a sharp rise in Covid-19 infections, the Pope will have limited exposure to the public, our correspondent says.

The Pope himself has had two shots of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, and his entourage will have been inoculated, but there are fears the trip could become a super-spreader event given the large crowds expected.

The Pope will also visit nearby Qaraqosh, where Christians have returned since the defeat of IS in 2017 to restore the town's church and rebuild their homes.

That afternoon, he will celebrate Mass at a stadium in Irbil, which thousands of people may attend.

At least 52 people were killed as security forces stormed a Catholic church in Baghdad to free dozens of hostages, said Deputy Interior Minister Maj Gen Hussein Kamal.

He suggested six attackers had also died in the fighting, though other sources have said the overall death toll was lower.

Pope Benedict XVI has condemned the "absurd... ferocious violence".

The gunmen had reportedly demanded the release of jailed al-Qaeda militants.

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A statement was posted on a militant website allegedly run by the Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni militant umbrella group to which al-Qaeda in Iraq belongs, claiming responsibility for the attack.

The statement reportedly said Iraqi Christians would be "exterminated" if Muslim women in Egypt were not freed. It specifically mentioned two women in Egypt who radicals believe are being held against their will after converting to Islam.

Negotiations abandoned
Residents of Baghdad's affluent Karada district, where the attack took place, first heard a loud explosion at about 1700 (1400 GMT) on Sunday, believed to have been a car bomb going off at the scene.

About 100 people were inside Our Lady of Salvation for an evening Mass at the time.

The blast was followed by gunfire as a group of armed men began by attacking the Iraq Stock Exchange building, police said, and then took over the Catholic church just across the road, clashing with guards and killing some of them.

It seems the church was the attackers' real target, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad.

One eyewitness, who was inside the church, said the gunmen "came into the prayer hall and immediately killed the priest". The witness, who declined to give his name, said worshippers were beaten and herded into an inne hall.

There was an hours-long stand-off as security forces surrounded the building with helicopters hovering overhead.

The militants made contact with the authorities by mobile phone, demanding the release of al-Qaeda prisoners and also of a number of Muslim women they insisted wer