left Rome today to start a four-day trip to Iraq, his most risky foreign trip since his election in 2012 and the first visit by a pontiff to the country.
The flags of Iraq and the Vatican City fluttered outside Baghdad airport in anticipation of his arrival. Mosul is a former Islamic State stronghold, and churches and other buildings there still bear the strains of conflict. 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 minority groups in Iraq, 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.
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