The man killed during a Canadian police raid at his home in Ontario on Wednesday was a supporter of the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group and in the final stages of preparing an attack on a Canadian city with a homemade bomb, police said on Thursday.
Police went to the home of Aaron Driver in the small town of Strathroy after receiving credible information, including a “martyrdom video”, from US authorities that he planned what could have been a “dreadful” attack, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said at a news conference, Reuters reported.
Driver died after he detonated an explosive device in the backseat of a taxi as police closed in and opened fire, the RCMP said in Ottawa. A representative from a local taxi company said a cab had been dispatched to Driver’s address at the time of the police raid and the taxi driver sustained minor injuries.
“It was a race against time,” said RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mike Cabana, noting the outcome “could have been significantly more dreadful” if police had not intervened when they did.
The incident was the first security test for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was elected last October and who in February fulfilled a campaign pledge to withdraw Canada from the combat mission against IS and to increase its mission training local fighters against the group in northern Iraq.
The video provided by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation allowed the RCMP to identify Driver and go to his home in Strathroy, about 225 km southwest of Toronto. In Washington, the FBI said it gave the RCMP “actionable threat intelligence”.
In the video, a man in a black balaclava refers to crimes against Muslims and pledges an imminent attack on a Canadian city.
“Oh Canada, you received many warnings, you were told many times what would become of those who fight against the Islamic State,” the man says in the video, pledging allegiance to the militant group.
Police said the attack was planned for the next 72 hours, during rush hour. The RCMP said there was no indication that Driver, a 24-year-old Muslim convert, had any accomplices and did not specify which city was targeted. IS media said Driver was its “soldier”, the SITE Intelligence Group monitoring service said on Thursday.
Driver, who also used the alias Harun Abdurahman, was arrested but never charged with a crime last year for openly supporting IS on social media. In February he was placed on a peace bond, a court order that restricted his movements, required that he stay away from social media and computers, and not have contact with IS or similar groups. Police said on Thursday that Driver had not been under constant surveillance, but had been supervised.
