On Guard for Islamic State's Lone Wolves

"Even lone wolves give off vapour trails that are potentially discoverable by security agencies."
Wesley Wark, visiting professor, national security specialist, University of Ottawa

"In Canada, we don't criminalize thought."
"Do we really want the state to get into trying to change people's minds?'
Christian Leuprecht, security expert, professor, Royal Military College, Kingston, Ontario

"If we've gotten to this point where we're talking knives and cars ... they are virtually unstoppable."
"This may be an era where we have to expect these things are going to happen, which is not defeatist, it's realist."
Phil Gursky, analyst, head, Borealis Threat and Risks Consulting

"He [Const.Mike Chernyk] was in a struggle for his life, holding on to his gun with one hand and blocking the knife with his other."
"Details of the criminal flight from Wayne Gretzky Drive to Jasper Avenue are sobering. The truck drove left of centre on several occasions, nearly T-boned at least one vehicle and attempted to run over civilians who were crossing at a crosswalk on Jasper Avenue."
"As a result, a tactical manoeuvre was authorized and successfully executed causing the vehicle to roll on its side."
"We have no reason to believe there is any threat to our city, but we encourage citizens to be vigilant and to report any unusual or suspicious activities to the police complaint line."
Police Chief Rod Knecht, Edmonton, Alberta

The suspect remains in custody, and terror charges are pending, police said. (CBC)

A 30-year-old refugee claimant who has lived in Canada for several years, a Somalian national who had been under police radar several years back as a result of a complaint that he had been openly espousing radical Islamist jihad, had dedicated himself to a lone-wolf attack this past Saturday in Edmonton. Possibly in response to an article posted on an Islamic State-linked website titled "Knights of Lone Jihad", as a how-to guide for prospective recruits.

He used the now-classic instruments of lone-wolf attacks, a vehicle and a knife. It hasn't been the first time a member of a Canadian security force would be attacked in an instance of vehicular homicide, a previous notorious instance in Quebec took the life of a member of Canada's military. In this case, the vehicle rammed through a temporary barricade to directly hit a constable on duty in front of a sports stadium. Two onlookers initially ran to the aid of the fallen policeman, then hurriedly left the scene when the driver of the vehicle exited, carrying a large knife to repeatedly stab Constable Chernyk.

Hours later, after escaping the original scene, the driver now in a rented U-Haul truck, ran down four pedestrians in the downtown Edmonton area. One victim suffered a fractured skull, another a brain bleed, but all four will survive their rendezvous with terrorism. The suspect was found to have had an Islamic State flag in his vehicle. Abdullahi Hasan Sharif was stopped by police some six hours after the original attack, and extensive questioning was undertaken.

What is known is that in 2015 a questioning session had taken place when members of the RCMP integrated National Security Enforcement Team had interrogated him after a complaint, for "espousing extremist ideology". The investigation was inconclusive and it was deemed that insufficient evidence was extracted, to lay charges or to obtain a peace bond, leading to his later release.

"He would rant. It was very incoherent. He would just bounce from idea to idea, tangent to tangent, just about what he believed in and he definitely had genocidal beliefs, you could say."
"He had major issues with polytheists. He said they need to die. That sort of thing. I only had a handful of conversations with him about it; those only occurred when there were just two of us in the work room."
Unnamed co-worker

A description of the suspect had been circulated to police throughout the city once registration information had been extracted from his abandoned vehicle at the scene of the first attack. That led to a security net over north-central Edmonton while police initiated a manhunt. Hours later two police pulled a man in a U-Haul truck over where one of the officers recognized the name on the driver's licence matched the name of the suspect. The driver revved the engine and raced off, and a high-speed police chase ensued.

Which was when the vehicle, while fleeing police, deliberately ran down pedestrians. Leading the police to then engage a tactic resulting in the vehicle rolling over on its side. Police were able to break the windshield and throw a stun grenade at the driver, but he resisted until a Taser temporarily disabled him, and he was removed in handcuffs. "No shots were fired. In fact, no shots were fired anywhere in this entire incident", pointed out Chief Knecht.

A report out of Britain's United Services Institute outlined that the number of lone-wolf terrorist attacks in Europe saw a steady rise between 2000 and 2014 of which 38 percent were seen to be religiously-motivated, while 24 percent were the result of far-right ideology. "[It's ideal for the one] who wants to participate in al-Jihad without costing him the hardship of travelling ... or wants to pursue al-Jihad in secrecy alone ... while he pursues his everyday life in a natural way", suggested Daniel Alati, an expert on counter-terrorism at Ryerson University, Toronto.

Heavily armed police tactical officers approaching the apartment building afternoon that was home to Abdulahi Hasan Sharif, the man CBC has identified as being the suspect in Saturday's attacks in Edmonton. (Travis McEwan/CBC)