Some people are claiming that ISIS is behind the shooting in Canada on Wednesday, and the theory was only furthered by an ISIS-affiliated Twitter account posting a picture that allegedly shows one of the gunmen.
The gunman killed the soldier before entering Parliament and firing more shots.
The gunman, who was identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, was shot dead.
Justin Ling, a freelance journalist who was in the Canadian Parliament when the shooting happened, told MSNC that the attack was “obviously inspired” by a radical ideology, likely ISIS, which recently threatened an attack on Canada.
He said that it seems the attacks on Wednesday are connected to the situation on Monday where a Canadian soldier was killed by a man who was “radicalized.”
“I think we are all operating on the assumption. There was reports, obviously unconfirmed reports, that one of the gunmen was wearing an Arabic style scarf, a kaffiyeh. Given the coordinated nature of the attack it seems to be obviously inspired by radical ideology. I think it’s obviously whether or not they were coordinated with the attacks on Monday, it was obviously inspired by it,” Ling said.
“I know, for a fact the security intelligence agency had been monitoring up to 90 individuals they believed were radicalized and capable of carrying out attacks. They told us that the man from Monday was one of those 90, I think it’s clear that however many there were today were on there too.”
“We haven’t [gotten the information confirmed], but we’ve been told there was repeated warnings from ISIS and ISIS members over the past weeks that the attack on Canada was imminent and they would be targeting uniformed personnel and that the attack would happen today,” he said.
One witness, construction worker Scott Walsh, told Reuters that he heard a gunshot, and then saw a man dressed in black with a scarf over his face running towards parliament with a gun.
A Canadian parliament official described the gunman to BBC as looking “Arabian” with “long hair and a small beard.”
Tony Zobl, 35, said told the Canadian Press news agency that he witnessed the soldier being gunned down from his fourth-floor window directly above the National War Memorial, a tall granite cenotaph, or empty tomb, with bronze sculptures dedicated to those who died in World War I.
“I looked out the window and saw a shooter, a man dressed all in black with a kerchief over his nose and mouth and something over his head as well, holding a rifle and shooting an honor guard in front of the cenotaph point-blank, twice,” Zobl said.
“The honor guard dropped to the ground, and the shooter kind of raised his arms in triumph holding the rifle.”
And apparently a man identifying himself as a supporter of the Islamic State responded to a Tweet from France’s “France 24″ News station with the following message:
“Soldiers of #Islamic_state who are everywhere around the globe declared war on the coalition countries”
The Toronto Sun’s Michele Mandel said that Canada is “under attack by homegrown terrorists.”
“Homegrown terrorists seemed the stuff of TV shows not too long ago. And yet these past few weeks have shown that the danger they pose has been very much on the minds of Canada’s police agencies. A few weeks ago, CSIS director Michel Coulombe told a House of Commons committee that they know of at least 80 violent radicals who have returned here after being involved in terrorism overseas,” she wrote.
“Intelligence agencies had picked up increased ‘chatter’ from radical Islamist groups such as Islamic State and al-Qaida about possible attacks after Canada decided to join the international coalition against ISIS. But despite this warning, two fatal attacks have now followed.
“It proves the startling and terrifying truth that we now face - no matter how vigilant we may be, how can we protect ourselves from the radicals hidden among our own countrymen? Blood now stains the granite cenotaph, spilled not by a foreign enemy, but by one within.”
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