Five injured in stabbing and ramming attack in Canada, suspect in custody.

The U-Haul truck used in the attack. ABC/CTV

Five people were injured in a two part stabbing and ramming attack in Edmonton, Canada and police have opened a terror investigation. ABC News. The attack occurred at a Canadian Football League game and initially targeted a police checkpoint. The attacker rammed his car into a barrier, stabbed a police officer and then was able to escape on foot. Later, in a second attack that appears to be related, four people were injured by a U-Haul truck that drove onto the sidewalks of Edmonton before flipping. The suspect was captured and is believed to have acted alone in both attacks. An ISIS flag was recovered from the suspects Chevy Malibu that was used in the first attack. 

Cameraman @JSJamato got shots of what appeared to be an ISIS flag in suspect's vehicle. EPS Chief Rod Knecht confirmed that @ newser. #yeg pic.twitter.com/bawI5MxxyB

— Nicole Weisberg (@NWeisbergCTV) October 1, 2017

My Comment:
Edmonton Canada is the capital of Alberta so it isn't completely surprising that there was a terror attack there. Every larger city has a decent chance of an attack, and Edmonton has just under one million people. My guess is that in every city that large there is at least one person sympathetic to ISIS. And it only takes one.

We don't usually think of Canada when we think of terrorist attacks, but there have been several in the past few years, including at least one ramming attack. Plus, they have a population of Sunni Muslims and that often means there exists a pool of potential attackers.They have also had an influx of refugees and it will be interesting to see the background of this suspect.

And there is little doubt that this was an ISIS inspired terror attack. It may have been a "lone wolf" attack, given that police say he acted alone and he wasn't able to acquire serious weaponry, but I am guessing that this was at least linked to ISIS ideologically. The ISIS flag at the scene of the crime is a pretty big hint, but the choice of weapon is one generally used by ISIS. Though we must caution, others have been picking up the vehicle ramming tactic who have no connection to Islam.

What surprised me is how the suspect was able to get away with the first attack. Canadian police are armed, just like American ones, and you would have thought that someone would have shot this attacker as he was stabbing the injured officer. Either this was some kind of unarmed auxiliary officer, which would make sense at a football game, or someone dropped the ball. You would think that they would work in pairs or something.

That being said, we are lucky that this attack ended with only five people hurt. I am guessing since this attack happened early in the morning, there weren't too many people on the streets to target. And cops were able to chase him down and either cause him to crash or be there when he crashed his truck on his own. Had this attack happened during the day or even at bar close, many more people could have been injured, either during the attack itself or during the high speed police chase.

I think the choice of the initial attack is significant as well. It occurred at a CFL football game which draws quite a few people. ISIS and other terrorist groups have long targeted sports venues. Indeed, some of the most memorably and impactful attacks have occurred during sports events, including the Paris attacks.

It's not surprising why. For one thing it's a major event where large numbers of people are going to be gathered close together. Some of them might be intoxicated making it more difficult for them to fight back. Their is also the obvious psychological impact as well. Even though I am still pretty pissed at the NFL right now, I'd be furious if someone attacked one of their games, just as I am sure CFL fans are furious as well. That means your attack will have slightly more impact if you are a terrorist who targets a sporting event.

The downside is that many of these venues have decent security. I've only gone to an NFL game once (Green Bay vs Tampa Bay, Brett Favre threw five picks) and the security was fairly tight. This was post 9/11 so I am not sure if things are different right now, but I think that every professional and college league, no matter what the sport, should be reviewing their security in light of this incident. I'd even say high school games might want to do so as well...

I also think that this attack shows that even as ISIS is decimated on the battlefields of Syria and Iraq, there are still many people willing to throw their lives away for ISIS ideology. ISIS seems to have lost at least some of their international terrorism ability, but they still inspire followers and will continue to do so long after they lose their last territories in the Middle East. This is a problem that won't just go away due to battlefield success.

The good news, if you could call it that, is that larger scale attacks including terrorist bombings and the hybrid attacks ISIS has deployed in Europe should become less common. The large ISIS cells have been broken up and aren't going to be as well funded without the ISIS tax base in Syria and Iraq. They won't disappear either but I expect most of the terrorism to be lower scale "lone wolf" attacks for the foreseeable future.