Najaf prepares for Pope Francis' visit

Pope Francis will meet with Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric, Ali al-Sistani, during a groundbreaking trip to the country next month.His schedule also includes a pilgrimage to ancient Christian communities that were devastated in battles with the Islamic State group.

On his first day in Baghdad, Francis will meet with Catholic priests and nuns in the Our Lady of Salvation Church, the site of a 2010 massacre that killed 58 people and was claimed by the al-Qaida in Iraq group, which later splintered into Islamic State.

The next day, Francis travels to Najaf, home of al-Sistani, one of the world's foremost Shiite leaders.

Security preparations have begun in the streets of the city ahead of his visit.

He will also host an interfaith meeting that day in the ancient city of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, the prophet revered by all three monotheistic faiths.

The Pope has spent years trying to improve Christian relations with Muslims, and his meeting with al-Sistani will mark one of his most important encounters with a Shiite leader.

Francis has already forged close ties with the prominent Sunni leader, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the seat of Sunni learning in Cairo.

The Pope's last full day in Iraq will take him to the northern Kurdish region, where he will visit Mosul and Qaraqosh in the Nineveh Plains, the largest Christian town in Iraq where the population fled when IS arrived in 2014.

Image: AP