Canadian and British police have dismantled two ISIL terrorist
Authorities are holding 25-year-old Awso Peshdary in the capital city of Ottawa, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Assistant Commissioner James Malizia on Tuesday, adding, “We were able to disrupt an organized network associated with IS (ISIL).”
Press.tv reported that Ottawa also issued international warrants through Interpol for the arrest of Khadar Khalib, 23, and John Maguire, 24, in joining the ISIL Takfiri group and encouraging others to follow suit.
“This network was involved in recruiting individuals for terrorism purposes and in sending them into Syria and Iraq for the benefit of this terrorist group,” Malizia added.
Maguire, also identified as Abu Anwar al-Canadi, has been reportedly killed in Syria while fighting for the terrorist group.
In a six-minute video released by the Takfiri group in December, Ottawa-born Maguire warned that Canada’s involvement in US-led coalition airstrikes against alleged ISIL positions in Syria and Iraq would result in revenge “lone wolf” attacks in the country.
In the video, Maguire makes reference to two previous attacks on Canadian security forces by Martin Couture-Rouleau and Michael (Joseph) Zehaf-Bibeau in October and urges his countrymen to follow them as their examples.
Couture-Rouleau, a radicalized Quebec man, was shot dead by police after he ran down two soldiers, killing one of them, with his vehicle near a military compound in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, slaughtered Canadian Army Corporal Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial and then stormed the parliament building in Ottawa before being gunned down by security forces.
Canada’s Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney issued a statement in December, calling on Canadians to remain vigilant amid the threat of attacks in the country.
Prominent Canadian Muslim cleric, Syed Soharwardy, warned in August against recruiting of citizens in Canada by the ISIL militant group for battle in Syria and Iraq.
The Calgary-based imam, best known for his pacifist sermons, began a 48-hour hunger strike “to create awareness about the dangerous nature” of the terrorist group and pay homage to American journalist James Foley, who was beheaded by ISIL.
The cleric called on Canada and other Western governments to take serious measures against the threat of ISIL and other terrorist groups.
Western intelligence services say over 100 Canadians have joined ISIL in Iraq and Syria.
Figures from the London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) and the New York-based Soufan Group show an estimated 20,000 militants from almost 80 countries have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight with extremist groups.
The figures suggest that while about a quarter of the foreign militants are from the West, the majority are from Morocco and nearby Arab countries, such as Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
In the Meantime, AP reported that a student who had been planning to join Islamic extremists in Syria has been jailed in Britain for 3 ½ years.
David Souaan was sentenced yesterday after having been found guilty in December of preparing for terrorist acts.
The 20-year-old Souaan had visited Syria in 2013 and was trying to return there when he was arrested at Heathrow Airport in May.
Judge Peter Rook said Souaan had been “vulnerable to extremist views” because of his youth and immaturity. Souaan came to Britain in 2013 on a student visa to study international relations at Birkbeck College in London. He comes from a wealthy family with roots in both Serbia and Syria.
His lawyer had argued for leniency because of the loneliness Souaan endured as a student in London and because of upheaval he suffered as a child in Serbia during the Bosnian wars and later when the fighting in Syria brought extreme suffering to his extended family there.
British officials say hundreds of Britons have joined extremists in Syria. Security officials warn that many may try to launch terror attacks inside Britain when they return.
M. Wassouf