ROME (Reuters) — Pope Francis left Rome on Friday 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.

Pope Francis boards the plane for his visit to Iraq, at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy, March 5, 2021.
(Credit: Vatican Media via REUTERS)

An Alitalia airplane carrying the 84-year-old pope, his entourage, a security detail, and about 75 journalists, left Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport for the 4½-hour flight to the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. The flags of Iraq and the Vatican City fluttered outside Baghdad airport in anticipation of his arrival.

Iraq is deploying thousands of additional security personnel to protect Francis during the visit, which comes after a spate of rocket and suicide bomb attacks raised fears for his safety.

Francis’s whirlwind tour will cover four cities in the north and south of the country, taking him by plane, helicopter and possibly armoured car to areas that most foreign dignitaries are unable to reach, let alone in such a short space of time.

He will say Mass at a Baghdad church, meet Iraq’s top Shiite Muslim cleric in the southern city of Najaf and travel north to Mosul, where the army had to empty the streets for security reasons last year for a visit by Iraq’s prime minister. Mosul is a former Islamic State stronghold, and churches and other buildings there still bear the strains of conflict.

The trip is the pope’s 33^rd outside Italy. He is due to return to Rome on Monday morning.