A top Iraqi diplomat has warned that the Pope is at risk of being assassinated by the Islamic State (ISIS).
Habeeb al Sadr, Iraqi ambassador to the Vatican, said the militant group had issued "credible threats" to murder Pope Francis. The warning comes in advance of a trip the Pope is making to Albania on Sunday,
Breitbart reported.
"Just put two and two together … They want to kill the Pope," Sadr told the Italian newspaper La Nazione, adding that the growing threat of extremism prevents the Pope from being safe anywhere in the world.
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"The threats against the Pope are credible."
Sadr, however, conceded that he does not have any specific details of a threat but was convinced the Pope is in real danger.
"I am not aware of specific facts or operational projects. But what has been said by the self-declared 'Islamic state' terrorists is clear. They want to kill the Pope.
"I think they could try to hit him during his travels or even in Rome, because there are members of ISIS who are not Arabs but also Canadians, Americans, French, British and Italian.
"This gang of criminals does not merely threaten," Sadr said. "In Iraq they have violated or destroyed some of the holiest sites of Shia Islam. They have hit places of worship in the Yazidi religion and Christianity. They forced 150,000 Christians to flee Mosul."
The Vatican has insisted there is no known threat to the Pope's safety.
"There is nothing serious to this. There is no particular concern in the Vatican. This news has no foundation," Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told the Catholic News Agency, according to Breitbart.
The Vatican also said there are no plans for the Pope to change his transportation to a bullet-proof Popemobile, which was used by predecessors since 1981 following the assassination attempt on John Paul II.
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