Pope Francis confirms that he will visit him despite the attack

10 missiles target a military base housing Americans in western Iraq

Iraqi policemen guard a church in Baghdad ahead of Pope Francis' visit.

EPA

At least 10 missiles targeted the Ain al-Assad base, which includes American forces in Anbar, western Iraq, yesterday, in an attack that resulted in the death of a civilian contractor with the Western coalition, two days before Pope Francis' historic visit to Iraq. To make his historic visit to Iraq, tomorrow, despite the missile attack.

A spokesman for the International Coalition to Combat Terrorism in Iraq, Wayne Maruto, said in a tweet on the social networking site "Twitter", that "10 missiles targeted an Iraqi military base, which is the Ain Al-Assad base, which includes coalition forces around 4:00 GMT yesterday," explaining The Iraqi security forces are leading the investigation into the attack, while an Iraqi security source confirmed that the rockets were fired from a village near Ain Al-Assad.

Iraqi and Western security sources said that the attack resulted in the death of a civilian contractor with the US-led international coalition in Iraq of a heart attack following the attack, without specifying his nationality.

In turn, the Security Media Cell affiliated with the Iraqi Security Forces Command indicated that the missiles used in the attack were "Grad" models, while "France Press" quoted Western security sources as saying that the missiles that targeted the base were of the Iranian-made "Arch" type, namely They have higher accuracy than the missiles that usually target Western sites in Iraq.

The "Arch" missiles are an Iranian-made version of the "Grad" model.

And previous Iranian reports talked about the development of these missiles by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, with the aim of making them more accurate, so that their aiming accuracy is seven meters.

These missiles have a caliber of 122 mm, a range of 22 km, and are equipped with a warhead weighing 19 kg, while the total weight of the missile is 64 kg.

Last October, the United States threatened to close its embassy in Baghdad if the attacks did not stop, and the armed groups agreed to an indefinite truce, but several violations have occurred intermittently since then, and attacks have intensified recently on sites containing foreign forces. Two weeks ago, a military complex at Erbil airport in northern Iraq, where foreign forces from the coalition are stationed, and that attack resulted in two deaths, including a foreign civilian contractor working with the coalition.

Also last February, missiles fell near the US embassy in Iraq, and another on Balad Air Force base in the north, in an attack that wounded an Iraqi employee working for an American company to maintain F-16s.

On February 26, an American bombing targeted the "Hezbollah Brigades", an Iraqi faction loyal to Iran, on the Syrian-Iraqi border. While the United States confirmed that the bombing took place on the Syrian side of the border, the Brigades said that one of its fighters died on the Iraqi side.

The attack came in response to the targeting of Americans in Iraq.

US President Joe Biden said at the time that the US air strikes in eastern Syria should be viewed by Iran as a warning.

In addition, Pope Francis said yesterday that he is still determined to make his historic visit to Iraq on Friday, and the Pope said in his weekly sermon: “I will go to Iraq, God willing, for a three-day pilgrimage visit. I wanted for a long time to meet this people who suffered so much.” .

The Pope called on the faithful to pray for this first trip of the greatest pontiff to Iraq, through which he hopes to encourage Christians who are declining in number to stay in their country, and to strengthen his connection with Islam.

The Pope said: "I ask you to accompany this apostolic journey with your prayers, so that it can be accomplished in the best possible way and lead to the desired results."

He added, "The Iraqi people are waiting for us, and they were waiting for John Paul II, who was forbidden to travel there. We cannot disappoint the people for the second time, so that we may pray for this journey to succeed."

A spokesman for Pope Francis stated, the day before yesterday, that the Supreme Pontiff will travel in an armored car, and will not meet the crowds, and the spokesman Matteo Brunei said: “This is a special situation, so all transport will be in a closed mechanism, which means that it will be difficult to see the Pope in The streets, and there will be a number of meetings, but there will not be more than a few hundred people ».

* Western security sources confirm that the Iranian-made "Arch" missiles.

• The Pope of the Vatican will travel in an armored car in Iraq, and will not meet the crowds.

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