An early-morning tip from FBI investigators triggered a “race against time” as police scrambled to identify and locate a balaclava-wearing would-be suicide bomber they feared was on the verge of killing innocent Canadians.
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Canadian terror suspect, Aaron Driver, was killed Wednesday evening after a confrontation with police in in the southern Ontario town of Strathroy.
The man planned to carry out a suicide bombing in a public area in an urban center during rush hour, said Mike Cabana, deputy commander of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Cabana told journalists police had evidence Driver had been in contact with the 15-year-old British boy who was sentenced last year to life imprisonment for inciting terrorism.
A Canadian who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a video was shot dead in a taxi after setting off an explosive device, police said.
Police said at the news conference that Driver had not been under constant surveillance, but had been monitored.
Aaron Driver was a troubled child who converted to Islam in his teens some time before his support for Islamic State attracted the attention of Canadian police.
Following these attacks, the Conservative government passed a bill giving the RCMP and Canada’s spy agency sweeping powers to thwart terror plots and prevent Canadian youth from flying overseas to join the Islamic State group in Syria.
On Thursday ISIS-linked news agency Amaq claimed that Driver was a “soldier” of the terrorist group and was responding to a call for attacks in Western countries.
He was arrested in June of past year in Winnipeg under suspicion he could have carried out a terrorist act, or helped a terror group.
The Islamic State’s news agency claimed Thursday that a Canadian man killed by police a day earlier was a member of the jihadist group and acting on its general instructions.
Police vehicle is parked during a raid on a home (not pictured) after they received “credible information of a potential terrorist threat” at a small community some 140 miles southwest of Toronto in Strathroy, Ontario, Canada Wednesday.
Police could not say if he died as a result of that detonation, or because he was shot by officers.
Taking all relevant information into account, the national terrorism threat level for Canada remains at “medium”, where it has stood since the fall of 2014, Goodale added.
However, police said Driver had previously been in “fairly constant contact” with a United Kingdom youth who was arrested in connection with the 2015 plot to attack ANZAC Day celebrations in Melbourne. He then moved to Strathroy from Winnipeg to comply with a peace bond that was agreed upon earlier this year by his lawyer and prosecutors. He was arrested and released on numerous bail conditions eight days later. He had also spoken out to encourage attacks against the Canadian police and military. In Washington, an Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman referred questions to Canadian authorities. Published reports at the time suggested Driver posted messages on social media that praised terrorist activities, including the attack on Parliament Hill in October 2014 by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.
Police do not believe that Driver had any accomplices, but they could not specify which city he was planning to target.
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Driver says he has been interviewed by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and knows they are monitoring him.
