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Dead Canada attack suspect prepared martyrdom video

A tip from the FBI triggered what Canadian police on Thursday called a “race against time” as police scrambled to identify and locate a balaclava-wearing would-be suicide bomber they feared was on the verge of committing a terror attack in Canada.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Aaron Driver, a Canadian man previously banned from associating with Islamic State extremists, prepared a martyrdom video and was about to commit a terrorist attack but was killed on Wednesday in southern Ontario after he detonated his explosive device in a taxi and was shot at by officers.

On Friday, the IS group’s media arm, the Aamaq news agency, said that Driver was a “soldier of the Islamic State.” A posting on the agency’s website said his only mistake was “in releasing his video before carrying out the attack.”

Police said they were tipped off by the American authorities at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. The FBI provided a screen shot and later a video of the masked suspect threatening a terror attack. By 11 a.m., Canadian police said they had a good idea who it was.

Driver planned to carry out a suicide bombing in a public area in an urban center during rush hour, Deputy Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commander Mike Cabana said. He identified the suspect as Driver, 24, originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba. RCMP Commander Jennifer Strachan said Driver was intercepted by police as he entered a taxi with a backpack and said Driver detonated an explosive device, injuring himself and the taxi driver, before police shot at him. It was unclear whether Driver died as a result of the shrapnel or a police bullet.
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