They most likely didn’t consider themselves Canadians. They no doubt thought of themselves as members of the global, supranational umma.
Canada’s newest export: jihad mass murderers. What are Muslim leaders in Canada doing to make sure that no more “Canadian” Muslims misunderstand Islam in the way these two did? Why, nothing. Nothing at all.
“Two Al Qaeda gunmen found dead inside Algeria gas plant were ‘Canadians,'” by Peter Allen and Nabila Ramdani in the Daily Mail, January 20 (thanks to Michael Coren):
Two dead Islamist militants found inside the Algerian gas plant were Canadians, an Algerian security source said today.
Algerian special forces discovered the bodies at the In Amenas facility, where the combined death toll of hostages and insurgents rose to 89 today.
The source said documents found on them had identified the two militants as Canadians as forces scoured the plant following Saturday’s bloody end to the crisis.
An official Algerian source said previously that the group behind the attack had comprised Arabs, Africans and also people from outside the African continent.
A report in Norway’s Aftenposten also said one of the attackers was tall and white with blue or green eyes, spoke English and read the Koran.
Much remains unclear about events after the jihadists staged the attack last Wednesday.
However, an Algerian newspaper said they had arrived in cars painted in the colours of state energy company Sonatrach, but registered in neighbouring Libya, a country awash with arms since Muammar Gaddafi’s fall in 2011.
Meanwhile, the hostage death toll rose from 23 to 57 today after 25 bodies found yesterday were reportedly identified as captives….
Details of the dead militants emerged after it was claimed some of the terrorists involved in the siege in which three Britons have died had been working at the BP plant where the atrocity took place.
They had been given short-term contracts by the oil and gas giant, allowing them to plan their attack with lethal precision.
Six of the Al Qaeda operatives were “˜taken alive” by the Algerian army today, while some 32 were killed during four days of fierce fighting with special forces.
Now there are claims that some of the Islamist radicals had been hired over the past year at the vast facility in the Sahara desert, close to the town of In Amenas.
This raises the possibility that the 23 gas workers who died, as well as those who were wounded and escaped, might have known their attackers.
Witnesses have already described one of the terrorists speaking with a “˜perfect English accent”, and appearing to have a good knowledge of the compounds around the gas field.
An Algerian security source said: “˜The suspicion is that some of the militants were placed inside the plant as drivers, cooks and even guards.
“˜This gave them detailed knowledge of the facility, and indeed its top level security measures.
“˜There were many hundreds of workers of all nationalities at the site, and applications for work would have been made to BP. There would have been some kind of background checks, of course.”
BP would not comment on the claims, which have begun to appear in the Algerian media.
But the security source said that Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the Algerian terrorist said to have masterminded the operation, is thought to have coordinated the placing of his men inside the plant.
His Mulathameen Brigade today threatened to carry out more attacks unless Western powers ended what it called an assault on Muslims in neighbouring Mali, according to the SITE monitoring service.
In a statement on Monday, the al Qaeda linked group also said the hostage-takers had offered negotiations on freeing the captives seized at a gas plant deep in the Sahara but the Algerian authorities used military force, SITE reported….
His gang, the Signed in Blood Brigade, is a ruthless Islamist group which has been behind numerous crimes around Africa, including bomb attacks and kidnappings.
As with so many Al Qaeda operatives, many of its recruits would have considerable experience of infiltrating western targets….
Other Algerian officials insisted that the army launched its assault after the Islamist militants began killing foreign hostages they described as “˜Christians and infidels”….