Pope Francis is at risk of an assassination attempt by the Islamic extremists of Isil, the Vatican has been warned, ahead of his first visit to a Muslim-majority country this weekend. 
  
 As the 77-year-old pontiff prepares to travel to Albania on Sunday for a one-day visit, Iraq's ambassador to the Holy See said there were credible threats against the pontiff's life. 
  
 The leader of the Roman Catholic Church could also be vulnerable when he travels to Turkey in November, the ambassador said. 
  
 Jihadists from Isil have in recent weeks boasted of wanting to extend their caliphate to Rome, the heart of Western Christendom, and have talked of planting the jihadist black flag on top of St Peter's Basilica. 
  
 Habeeb Al Sadr said there were also indications of a more specific threat against Pope Francis, who recently spoke out in favour of the US and its allies halting the advance of Isil in Syria and Iraq. 
  
 "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," the ambassador told La Nazione, an Italian daily, on Tuesday. 
  
 "I believe they could try to kill him during one of his overseas trips or even in Rome. There are members of Isil who are not Arabs but Canadian, American, French, British, also Italians. 
  
 "Isil could engage any of these to commit a terrorist attack in Europe." 
  
 The ambassador said the Pope had made himself a target by speaking out against the human rights abuses committed against Christians in Syria and Iraq, as well as by his approval of attempts by the US to try to roll back Isil. 
  
 "In cases like this, where there is an unjust aggression, then it is licit to halt the aggressor," he said in an interview during his flight back from a visit to South Korea last month. 
  
 "But I stress 'halt'. I don't say bomb, or make war, but rather stop him," the Pope said. 
  
 The ambassador, who has been stationed in Rome for four years, said: "This band of criminals does not just issue threats – in Iraq they have already violated and destroyed some of the most sacred sites of the Shiite faith. They have struck at Yazidi and Christian places of worship. They have declared that whoever is not with them, is against them. Either convert or be killed. And they are doing it – it is a genocide." 
  
 The Vatican downplayed the warning, saying that it had received no credible reports of a threat to the Pope's life and that he would not be changing his daily routine or reviewing his trip to Albania. 
  
 "There are no specific threats or risks that would change the Pope's behaviour or the way the trip is organised," said Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman. 
  
 During the Pope's trip to Tirana, the Albanian capital, on Sunday, he will celebrate Mass in the city's main square and drive around in his open-topped Popemobile, as usual, Father Lombardi said. 
  
 The Pope wanted there to be "no obstacles" between him and the ordinary people he will encounter. 
  
 No extra security measures would be taken for the Albania trip, despite previous warnings that Albanian jihadists who had returned home from fighting in Syria or Iraq might be planning an attack. 
  
 Vatican security officials are "calm" ahead of the one-day visit, the Rev Lombardi said. 
  
 The trip to Albania is intended to celebrate the rebirth of Christianity after religious belief was crushed under the Communist rule of Enver Hoxha, and to demonstrate how Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims live in harmony in the country of three million people. 
  
 Hoxha, a hardline dictator, declared Albania the world's first atheist state in 1967 and allowed the persecution of Catholics. 
  
 The Pope's trip to Turkey, which will include events in Ankara and Istanbul, is expected to take place on Nov 29 and 30. ||||| Security has been stepped up in Rome following an alleged ISIS threat against the Pope, Italian newspapers have reported. 
  
 On Monday, Il Tempo announced that Israeli intelligence experts say they believe ISIS is targeting Pope Francis, following his recent denouncement of the Islamist group. Il Tempo, citing an unnamed intelligence source, claims that Francis has been singled out as “the greatest exponent of the Christian religion”, and consequently a "bearer of false truth”. 
  
 But Vatican officials have played down the ISIS threat. "There is nothing serious to this," Reverend Federico Lombardi S.J. told the Catholic News Agency in response to Il Tempo’s claims. "There is no particular concern in the Vatican.” 
  
 This belief was shared by Newsweek correspondent Nicholas Farrell, who was told by an Italian intelligence contact that though “the pope is the firing line as he always has been… Islamists have not attempted to assassinate the Pope or blow up St Peter's so far because the Islamists regard Italy as a strategic place to launch attacks” and “not the main enemy like America or Britain”. 
  
 “There are fewer checks on terrorists in Italy and they can circulate more freely,” says Farrell. “The Pope and Vatican are not number one targets because the Islamists want to keep Italy sweet - to use Italy as base rather than a target.” 
  
 In a speech last week, Pope Francis, who recently decided to stop using the bullet-proof 'Pope-mobile' in favour of greeting crowds in the open air, used unusually strong language to condemn jihadist militants, and expressed concern for the plight of Christians and other minorities in Iraq. He also said the news from the country had left him "in dismay and disbelief" and, without naming ISIS, deplored reports of "thousands of people, including many Christians, driven from their homes in a brutal manner; children dying of thirst and hunger in their flight; women kidnapped; people massacred; [and] violence of every kind." He added: "All this gravely offends God and humanity. Hatred is not to be carried in the name of God. War is not to be waged in the name of God." 
  
 Pope Francis endorsed proposals for intervention in the region, claiming it was “legitimate” for the West to tackle “unjust aggression” after thousands of Christians and other religious minorities were forced to flee for their lives. 
  
 ISIS leader and self-proclaimed Caliph of the Islamic State Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has previously made a speech announced the group’s intention to “conquer Rome and own the world, if Allah wills”. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?
– Pope Francis may have solidified his enemy status when he said last month that ISIS must be stopped. Now Iraq's ambassador to the Vatican is warning that "threats against the pope are credible," and that he could be at risk during his visit to Albania this weekend or Turkey in November. "What has been declared by the self-declared Islamic State is clear—they want to kill the pope," Habeeb al-Sadr tells La Nazione, via the Telegraph. "I believe they could try to kill him during one of his overseas trips or even in Rome," al-Sadr says. "There are members of [ISIS] who are not Arabs, but Canadian, American, French, British, [and] also Italians." The Vatican doesn't appear overly anxious about the warning. "There are no specific threats or risks that would change the pope's behavior or the way the trip is organized," a Vatican spokesman says, adding no additional security measures would be implemented. But the Iraqi ambassador is still nervous about ISIS, whose leader recently said he hoped the group could "conquer Rome and own the world, if Allah wills," Newsweek reports. "This band of criminals does not just issue threats," al-Sadr says via the Telegraph. "They have declared that whoever is not with them is against them. Either convert or be killed."