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521 Syrians and Iraqis Killed in US-Led Air Strikes on Ayn Al-Arab, Kobani, Canadian Police State Increases Spying on Muslims After a Dubious Attack

October 23, 2014

US air strike on Ayn Al-Arab, Kobani, October 18, 2014	Canada's Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers is applauded in the House of Commons in Ottawa October 23, 2014 after killing a gunman in Parliament Buildings on October 22, 2014.

 

Canada's Harper pledges tougher security laws after attack

By Randall Palmer and David Ljunggren

OTTAWA Thu Oct 23, 2014 11:33am EDT

(Reuters) -

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged more surveillance and detention powers for security forces in Canada on Thursday after a gunman killed a soldier and rampaged through parliament before being shot dead.

Addressing the House of Commons just meters away from where the gunman, a reported convert to Islam, was shot dead on Wednesday, Harper said lawmakers would expedite new powers to counter the threat of radicals.

"The objective of these attacks was to instill fear and panic in our country," Harper said. "Canadians will not be intimidated. We will be vigilant, but we will not run scared. We will be prudent but we will not panic."

Harper pledged to speed up a plan already under way to bolster Canadian laws and police powers in the areas of "surveillance, detention and arrest."

The killing of the Canadian soldier was the second this week with a possible link to Islamist militants. A convert to Islam on Monday ran over two Canadian soldiers with his car, killing one, near Montreal, before being shot dead by police.

The attacks in Ottawa and Quebec took place as the Canadian government prepared to boost the powers of its spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Public Safety Minister Stephen Blaney said last week the new legislation would let the agency track and investigate potential terrorists when they travel abroad and ultimately prosecute them.

At the start of parliament's session on Thursday, the guard credited with killing a gunman in Canada's parliament received a prolonged standing ovation, reopening debate in the House of Commons dressed in his usual ceremonial garb and struggling to maintain composure.

Harper and members of parliament stood in the legislature as Kevin Vickers, Canada's Sergeant-at-Arms, led the traditional parade that opens every session of the House of Commons.

While parliament resumed, tensions in Canada's capital remained high.

Police arrested a man at gunpoint just steps from the prime minister as Harper and his wife were laying a wreath at the National War Memorial to commemorate the killing of the soldier there, Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, 24.

Police, shouting and with guns drawn, surrounded a man and ordered him to the ground. Ottawa Police said the man was arrested for "disturbing the crime scene" at the war memorial. The man's intent was not immediately clear.

"He crossed the tape. We told him not to. He didn't listen," said a police officer at the scene.

Harper himself was pulled back from the crime scene after he and his wife briefly lifted the crime scene tape and attempted to lay flowers, and then reversed themselves and laid their wreath outside the crime scene.

The tense moment was captured on camera and seen by throngs of people and politicians who had gathered at the war memorial.

ONE GUNMAN

Police said on Thursday they were satisfied that only one person was involved in the attack.

Canadian police were investigating a man named Michael Zehaf-Bibeau as the possible suspect, said a source familiar with the matter. U.S. officials said they had been advised he was a convert to Islam.

The attacks on soldiers in Ottawa and near Montreal took place after Canada announced this month it would send six jets to take part in air strikes against Islamic State fighters who have taken over parts of Iraq and Syria.

Defense Minister Rob Nicholson said Canada's deployment to Iraq would go on unimpeded.

Tighter security was evident all over the sprawling parliamentary zone in downtown Ottawa. Armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers stood outside the door where the gunman rushed in on Wednesday.

The flag flying over Parliament's Center Block, where the gunman had burst in on Wednesday morning, was at half mast.

"There was only one gunman," said an RCMP officer who was guarding Parliament Hill early on Thursday, checking the identity cards of workers and media going into the parliament complex.

He said in the confusion on Wednesday morning, witnesses saw things from different angles, suggesting the possibility of a second shooter but videos and further interviews showed this was not the case.

Bullet holes could be seen in the carpet just inside the front door and in the masonry in the hallway where he was shot.

In front of the war memorial, a crowd of about 100 people gathered at the police barricades in front of the war memorial early on Thursday.

"We're devastated that this has happened. I feel terrible for the individual that has lost his life, Cpl Cirillo," said Stephen Miller, who was standing at the barricades holding a bouquet of flowers.

"I was a member of the armed forces and I did ceremonial duties like this as well. It strikes at the fabric of our own society that something like this would happen... We're not going to be defeated by this, we live in an open and free society and I expect it to stay that way."

Asked if he was afraid for his safety being at the monument, Miller said, "Maybe a little but there is no courage without fear."

(Additional reporting by Leah Schnurr in Ottawa, Euan Rocha in Toronto and Julie Gordon in Vancouver; Writing by Andrea Hopkins; Editing by Howard Goller)

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U.S.-led air strikes killed 521 fighters, 32 civilians in Syria: monitor

BEIRUT, Thu Oct 23, 2014 10:14am EDT

(Reuters) -

Air strikes by U.S.-led forces have killed 521 (Syrians and Iraqis dubbed by Reuters as Islamist fighters) and 32 civilians during a month-long campaign in Syria, a monitoring group which tracks the violence said on Thursday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the vast majority of the deaths, 464, were militants from Islamic State, which has grabbed large areas of Syria and neighboring Iraq.

The attacks also killed 57 members of the Nusra Front, the Observatory said. Six of the civilians were children and five were women, it added.

The United States has been carrying out strikes in Iraq against Islamic State since July and in Syria since September with the help of Arab allies. Britain and France have also struck Islamic State targets in Iraq.

Washington justified its action in Syria under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, which covers an individual or collective right to self-defense against armed attack.

U.S. Central Command spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder said on Saturday that Washington took "reports of civilian casualties or damage to civilian facilities seriously and we have a process to investigate each allegation."

Close to 200,000 people have been killed in Syria's three-year civil war, according to the United Nations.

Coalition strikes have hit the Syrian provinces of Aleppo, Deir al-Zor, Idlib, Raqqa and al-Hassakah, the Observatory said.

(The story corrects to say 521, not 553, fighters killed)

(Reporting by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

 

 

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