In a video, shown by the RCMP at a news conference on Thursday, Driver pledged allegiance to ISIS, mentioned terrorist attacks in Europe and the United States, and said Canada had “Muslim blood on its hands”.
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Aaron Driver detonated an explosive device Wednesday when police confronted him after he entered a taxi outside his sister’s home in Strathroy, Ontario, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Jennifer Strachan.
The man killed by Canadian police in a raid at his home in Ontario was a supporter of the Islamic State group who was in the final stages of attacking a major urban centre with a homemade bomb, police say.
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. “You were told many times what will become of those who fight against the Islamic State”, Driver says in the video.
Driver died during a police operation, as the RCMP acted on what they describe as credible information of a potential terror threat.
The police operation involving Driver took place Wednesday night in the southern Ontario town of Strathroy, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) southwest of Toronto.
They included two members of the Islamic State group, a British youth arrested for his involvement in a terror plot targeting Australia, and Elton Simpson – one of two Americans who launched an attack on a Texas exhibition of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed past year.
The RCMP say a potential terror threat was thwarted yesterday, after receiving a tip about Aaron Driver’s plans from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The father of terror suspect Aaron Driver says he was a normal, fun-loving seven year old until his mother’s death from cancer deeply affected him.
In interviews with Canadian media that year, he appeared to support two separate lone wolf attacks by suspected jihadists in October 2014 in rural Quebec and Ottawa.
The country saw a large increase in terrorism offences previous year – 173, versus 76 in 2014, according police information reported by Statistics Canada in July.
The FBI said it gave the RCMP “actionable threat intelligence” regarding Driver around 8.30am local time on Wednesday.
There was no immediate confirmation from Canadian police that anyone had been shot, with a statement saying only that a suspect had been identified and that they had taken “action” after receiving information about a potential attack.
Ralph Goodale, minister of public safety and emergency preparedness, said in a statement Wednesday evening he had made Prime Minister Justin Trudeau aware of the situation and repeated that public safety is “protected”.
Corrections & Amplifications: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said Aaron Driver was killed in a confrontation with Canadian police.
“I think the way the situation unfolded yesterday is a clear demonstration of a level of cooperation that exists among all agencies that exist here in Canada and in the USA”, says Cabana. “A lot of his problems, internal problems, I think, stem from that”. The RCMP has said they didn’t know the taxi was on its way, either.
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By agreeing to the peace bond, Driver was “consenting or acknowledging that there are reasonable grounds to fear that he may participate, contribute – directly or indirectly – in the activity of a terrorist group”.
