Militants threat to kill Pope in Manila

Some Catholic bishops have expressed concern for the safety of Pope Francis when he visits the Philippines early next year amid threats by the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to kill him.
Basilan Bishop Martin Jumuad said the government should not take ISIS’ threat lightly, and must ensure the security of the pontiff while he is in the country.
The Pope will arrive on January 15 and will stay for five days. While his schedule has not been fully set, he is expected to spend time with the survivors of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in Tacloban City, Leyte, in the country’s Central Visayas region.
Jumuad said photos of supposedly ISIS recruits in Mindanao in southern Philippines that have been circulating online were “extremely alarming.”
President Benigno Aquino earlier said Philippine security forces were directed to “double the effort” to protect Francis during his visit.
“I want to see them double the effort especially for the head of the Holy Mother Church. There shouldn’t be any incident while he’s in our country,” Aquino said in a report.
He made the statements after Iraq’s ambassador to the Vatican, Habeeb al-Sadr, warned him that the ISIS was planning to assassinate the Pope during one of his overseas trips.
“What has been declared by the self-declared Islamic State is clear, they want to kill the Pope. The threats against the Pope are credible,” Al Sadr had said.
Cubao Bishop Honesty Ontiongco raised the same concern as
Jumuad’s, saying “the government should take some precautionary measures for the safety of Pope Francis.”
Another Pope, John Paul II, was the target of assassins when he visited the country in 1995.
At the time, the emerging Al Qaeda had launched Oplan Bojinka, a plot to plant bombs on airliners flying from Asian destinations to the US. A cell was set up in Manila to experiment with different devices.
Part of the plot called for the assassination of John Paul II as a diversion to make it easier for the terrorists to sneak the explosives into the planes.
The plot was foiled, and at least one suspect was arrested.