Canadian Man Killed by Police in Anti-Terror Raid

ISIS Claims Man Was 'Soldier of the Islamic State'

A police anti-terror raid in Strathroy, Ontario, Canada killed a 24-year-old Canadian man identified as Aaron Driver. Police say they had previously arrested him last year over pro-ISIS posts on social media, and he was since under a strict ban on using all social media.

Driver reportedly converted to Islam in his teens, and had a strained relationship with his parents. He intermittently attended Friday prayers in Winnipeg. He had moved to Strathroy earlier this year, to live with his sister. The FBI claimed he was in “the final stages” of a major terror attack in a major urban center with a homemade bomb when the police killed him.

Though Driver was described as a relatively solitary person with few contacts with anyone, ISIS reported that he was “a soldier of the Islamic State,” and was to carry out his attack as part of the organization’s calls for attacks inside coalition countries.

Canadian police described has capture as a “race against time,” claiming he had already made a pre-attack martyrdom video. He pledged an “imminent attack against a Canadian city” in the video, but did not say what city it was going to be. Strathroy is on the outskirts of London, Ontario, and just 45 miles from the US border at Sarnia-Port Huron.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.