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Added on the 08/03/2021 07:54:22 - Copyright : AFPTV - First images
Baghdad, Mar 5 (EFE), (Camera: Cristina Cabrejas).- Pope Francis arrived in Baghdad on Friday for the first ever papal visit to Iraq, and his first trip abroad since the start of the coronavirus pandemic last year.He will meet members of the country’s Christian minority community which was persecuted by the Islamic State that occupied parts of Iraq for three years until the terror group was defeated in late 2017.Sectarian violence in the war-torn country has seen Iraq’s Christian population fall from 1.5 million in 2003 to just 300,000.FOOTAGE OF POPE FRANCIS ON BOARD OF THE PLANE THAT TOOK HIM TO IRAQ ON FRIDAY.
Pope Francis embarks a plane at Fiumicino Airport in Rome as he heads to Iraq for a historic trip to the war-battered country, defying security fears and the pandemic to comfort one of the world's oldest and most persecuted Christian communities. IMAGES
Pope Francis arrives at the celebrated mass on Sunday with several thousand worshippers spread across a stadium in the Kurdistan regional capital of Arbil, the largest liturgy of his trip to pandemic-hit Iraq. IMAGES
Pope Francis is welcomed by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi as he arrives to Baghdad International Airport on historic trip to Iraq. The 84-year-old, who said he was making the first-ever papal visit to Iraq as a "pilgrim of peace," will also reach out to Shiite Muslims when he meets Iraq's top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. IMAGES TO COMPLETE WITH VIDI94C2CB_EN
Vatican City, Mar 5 (EFE).- (Camera: Álvaro Padilla/ Cristina Cabrejas) Pope Francis began on Friday his three-day trip to Iraq, one of the most difficult and risky due to the pandemic and the latest missiles launched against bases of the international coalition forces, but with the determined intention of bringing its proximity to the Christian community in the country, brutally persecuted by the Islamic State (IS) terrorists.FOOTAGE OF POPE FRANCIS AT THE AIRPORT IN ROME, HEADING FOR IRAQ