Terror came to the heart of the Canadian capital
Ottawa on Wednesday as a suspected jihadist
gunman shot dead a soldier at the national war
memorial and then rampaged through the halls of
the federal parliament.
The attacker, who was killed in a gun battle inside
parliament, was named as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, a
Canadian-born 32-year-old.
He was a recent convert to Islam from Quebec with
a history of drug abuse and whose passport had
been seized by authorities after he was designated
a "high-risk traveller", Canadian media reported.
The centre of Ottawa was paralysed as heavily
armed police fanned out in search of at least one
other suspected gunman following what appeared
to have been an jiahdist terrorist attack on the
heart of the country's government.
Canada was already on edge after a radical Muslim
convert killed a soldier and injured a second on
Monday in a deliberate hit-and-run car attack in
Quebec before being shot to death by police.
The similarity in the reported backgrounds of the
two killers has raised fears that "lone-wolf"
extremists - possibly a cell of radical converts in
Quebec - are targeting Canadian military personnel
in retaliation for the government's support of US-
led air strikes in Iraq and Syria.
Zehaf-Bibeaus' victim was identified as Cpl Nathan
Cirillo, 24, a reserve infantryman and young father
who was part of a two-man honour guard carrying
an unloaded rifle at the war memorial.
In a chilling detail, a witness described how the
gunman earlier raised his arms in a display of
triumph, a rifle in the air, after shooting Cpl Cirillo
at point blank rage in front of the cenotaph. The
location for the start of his rampage appeared
horrifically symbolic as it honours the country's
war dead.
Canada had just raised its domestic terror threat
level from low to medium on Tuesday because of
"an increase in general chatter from radical
Islamist organisations", officials said. Ottawa also
this week sent six fighter jets to the Middle East to
join US-led strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq
and the Levant after a parliamentary vote.
During his rampage, Zehaf-Bibeau came alarmingly
close to Stephen Harper, the prime minister who
was meeting MPs as the gunman burst into the
parliament with his gun blazing. Mr Harper was
rushed from the building while other politicians
dived for cover under tables.
The Ottawa Hospital said that it received three
victims of the shooting, including Cpl Cirillo who
was pronounced dead despite frantic attempts by
passers-by to save his life. The other patients, one
of whom was a parliamentary aide, were
discharged by the evening.
First aiders rush to assist the solider shot outside
the National War Memorial (Daneil Thibeault/CBC/
Reuters)
Kevin Vickers, the sergeant at arms, was praised
by MPs for saving further lives after he shot the
gunman outside rooms packed with politicians
gathered for weekly caucus meetings.
"MPs and staff owe their safety, even lives, to Kevin
Vickers, who shot the attacker just outside the
MPs' caucus rooms," said Craig Scott, a New
Democrat MP.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/canada/11181394/Soldier-killed-as-gunman-brings-terror-to-Canadian-Parliament.html

after conversion what do you expect

Make I seal off my lips

Islam again