Al-Qaida calls for lone wolf terror attacks in Canada
Posted January 21, 2015 6:11 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The same al-Qaida leader who claimed responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris has released a video calling for attacks against the West, including Canada, according to media reports.
In the video, Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, an official with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen, attempts to provoke lone wolf terrorist attacks, and named Canada as one of the western countries that fight Islam.
Earlier this month, gunmen stormed into the office of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris and killed 12 people.
Both al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are competing for the jihadist spotlight.
“Who can hit hardest, who can show that they’re fighting the hardest, and who can actually prove that their strategy is successful,” terror expert Katherine Zimmerman said.
CNN’s Brian Todd reports the West is actually in the middle of a bigger battle between the two terror groups.
“A chilling new concern among counter-terror officials, that there’s fresh intensified competition among the most dangerous terror groups to one-up each other, to take back the spotlight,” Todd said.
A spokesperson for Canada’s public safety minister says this country’s security agencies are closely monitoring this situation and have measures in place to address these types of threats.
There are already elevated security measures in place after the killing of two Canadian soldiers in Quebec and Ottawa, and the attack on Parliament Hill, back in October of 2014
Earlier this month, the RCMP cautioned its members to exercise a heightened level of caution and vigilance after a pro-Islamic State video, featuring footage of the October attack, urged killings of Canadian civilians, police and military.
