TORONTO (Reuters) – A homemade bomb set off last week by a Canadian man who was apparently inspired by Islamic State, failed to fully detonate, a senior police official told the National Post newspaper on Saturday.
While there was a blast in the back seat of a taxi in Strathroy, Ontario, as police closed in, it came from the detonators, and explosive material did not go off, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) deputy commissioner Mike Cabana said.
The RCMP could not immediately be reached for comment on the newspaper report.
Aaron Driver, 24, was shot dead by police on Aug. 10 and the taxi company in the small town said the driver sustained only minor injuries in the blast.
Cabana did not go into further detail on the bomb. He said forensic investigation was still underway. The target of what police have said was an attack plotted by Driver was unclear.
Driver, who also used the alias Harun Abdurahman, was arrested last year for openly supporting Islamic State on social media, but was never charged with a crime. Islamic State militants control parts of Iraq and Syria and they have supporters and sympathizers around the world who have carried out attacks on civilians in several countries.
In February, Driver was placed on a peace bond, a court order that restricted his movements. It required he stay away from social media and computers and not have contact with Islamic State or similar groups.
The RCMP has said officers sought out Driver on Aug. 10 after a tip from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation that morning, which included a “martyrdom video.”
Cabana said police identified Driver from the video in part through his choice of balaclava.
The incident called into question Canada’s capabilities to combat extremism and increased calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to abandon his plan to scale back a 2015 law that gave increased powers to police and intelligence agents.
(Reporting by Ethan Lou in Toronto; editing by Grant McCool)
