According to international intelligence sources, ISIS had the heart to conduct an attack in the province of Nineveh, in northern Iraq, in order to destabilize the security situation on the occasion of the Pope’s visit that began last Friday and ended yesterday. This is what time.news learns from the same sources, according to which the Islamic State has hypothesized to plan attacks also against a recently renovated bridge in Mosul, using a white Nissan Navara pickup truck, arriving from Sahaji, also in the province of Nineveh. Obviously none of this has happened, and it is not known whether due to the prompt intervention of the security systems or because the tip did not turn out to be precise. However, the warnings forced the Iraqi and Western “antennas” responsible for monitoring the papal voyage to raise the level of protection and verify all information.
According to the results of international intelligence, another report would have put the structures of the Western secret services in Iraq in a state of fibrillation. In particular, the one concerning a probable “Vbied” attack (improvised explosive device on a vehicle) that ISIS allegedly designed in the Hamdaniyah district: for the attack, intelligence analysts stressed how a water tank of khaki color driven by (the note also reports the name of the kamikaze driver), resident in the province of Anbar, in the north of the country. The men of ISIS – again according to the records of the 007 – for this terrorist blitz would have worn military uniforms. Also in this case, targeted checks and feedback in the field would have given negative results.
According to other intelligence sources, the Daesh extremists have thought to hit the international airport of Baghdad and the American embassy in the Iraqi capital in recent days, mounting rocket launchers on two pickups, probably one of which is white. Information was also received by Western intelligence about an unidentified woman, who in early March could have traveled to Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, wearing explosive belts to carry out attacks “at an unspecified time in the future”.
Finally, other reports of leaks about possible attacks concerned the possibility of an attack, through a canal, near the church of Qaraqosh. However, none of these reports speak of a direct attack against the Pope. But luckily, and due to the large security apparatus set up by the security services for Francis’ trip, nothing happened.