Canada police make IS terror cell arrest

TORONTO (AP) – Canadian police made another arrest and are announcing charges against three men related to an Islamic State recruiting cell in Ottawa, a senior police official said Tuesday.

The official said the case is linked to the arrest of three men in Ottawa last month. It involves alleged recruiting for the Islamic State group and Canadian John Maguire, a fighter who appeared in an IS video overseas and who reportedly might have been killed recently.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak ahead of the planned announcement Tuesday, said charges will be brought against Maguire, who police can’t confirm is dead.

“We’d’ been working him for a while,” the official said.

The official said Awso Peshdary, the man arrested in Ottawa, and was the subject of a prior police terror investigation but said police didn’t have enough evidence to arrest him then. The official said police will also announce charges against a third man.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have called a news conference and only said that a terror arrest has been made and charges have been filed.

Suliman Mohamed, 21, was charged last month with participating in a terrorist group. That arrest occurred just days after twin brothers linked to Mohamed, Ashton Carleton Larmond and Carlos Larmond, were charged with terrorism-related offences.

Carlos Larmond was arrested at Montreal’s airport on charges of intending to travel overseas for terrorist purposes. A separate government official familiar with the matter said then that the brothers were trying to get to Syria. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said the latest charges includes an arrest and also involves people who are outside Canada.

“It’s a cell in Ottawa. Their focus seems to be on overseas activities, not on carrying out terrorist acts at home,” the government official said.

Maguire appeared in a polished propaganda video in December urging Muslims to launch indiscriminate attacks against Canadians, similar to those carried out in October in Ottawa and St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec.

In October, Canada was hit by two terror attacks by so-called “lone wolves” believed to have been inspired by the Islamic State group. In Ottawa, a gunman shot and killed a soldier at Canada’s National War Memorial and then stormed Parliament before being gunned down.

The attack in Ottawa came two days after a man ran over two soldiers in a parking lot in Quebec, killing one and injuring the other before being shot to death by police. The man had been under surveillance by Canadian authorities, who feared he had jihadist ambitions and seized his passport when he tried to travel to Turkey.

Canada is taking part in the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria.