Ottawa: Canada’s prime minister vowed the country would “not be intimidated” after a reported Muslim convert stormed parliament and killed a soldier, the nation’s second ‘terrorist’ attack in days.
The gunman, whose name was on a terror watch list, attempted to force his way into Canada’s parliament on Wednesday before the assembly’s sergeant-at-arms shot him dead.
The attack the second this week targeting Canadian military personnel came as Canadian jets were to join the US-led bombing campaign against Islamist militants in Iraq.
“Canada will never be intimidated,” premier Stephen Harper told the nation in a televised address after the shootings on Wednesday.
The spectacular security breach came two days after an alleged Islamist ran over two soldiers in Quebec, killing one of them, in what officials branded a terrorist attack.
In audio of the attack on parliament, repeated shots could be heard booming through its chambers.
The suspect, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau who was said to be a convert to Islam, had a record of drug offences and robbery.
Dave Bathurst, who met the 32-year-old Zehaf-Bibeau in a mosque about three years ago, said his friend did not at first appear to have extremist views, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
But he said at times he exhibited a disturbing side.
“We were having a conversation in a kitchen, and I don’t know how he worded it. He said the devil is after him,” Bathurst told the the CBC.
He said his friend frequently talked about the presence of Shaytan in the world an Arabic term for devils and demons. “I think he must have been mentally ill.”
Bathurst last saw Zehaf-Bibeau praying in a mosque in the Vancouver area six weeks ago and said he spoke of wanting to go to the Middle East.
He insisted he was only going abroad with the intent of learning about Islam and to study Arabic, Bathurst said. Zehaf-Bibeau was considered a “high risk” suspect, according to reports.
