Canadian who attacked army recruiters charged with terrorism

A Canadian man who stabbed soldiers at a recruiting center in Toronto in March has been formally charged with terrorism, federal police say.

Ayanie Hassan Ali, 27, was charged in a stabbing attack at a Canadian Armed Forces recruiting center in Toronto on March 14, 2016. (Toronto Police Service)

Ayanie Hassan Ali, 27, faces attempted murder, assault and weapons charges “for the benefit of a terrorist group,” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police say in a statement.

Ali is alleged to have stabbed a soldier in the arm without provocation after entering a government building in mid-March. Police say he then sought to wound a second soldier before he was subdued.

The suspect was overheard saying at the scene of the attack, “Allah told me to do this, Allah told me to kill people,” Toronto police chief Mark Saunders told reporters the next day.

— AFP