Experts call some incidents ‘unstoppable’

EDMONTON— Terrorism experts say a poorly planned attack in Edmonton may be have been inspired rather than directed by Daesh militants, a type of attack that is difficult if not impossible to prevent.

“I’m not sure how you’re going to stop an attack of this nature,” said Phil Gurski, a threat consultant in Ottawa and former analyst with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Gurski said it’s clear the suspect wasn’t very smart, since he handed a police officer his driver’s licence at a checkstop that connected him with the car that struck the officer, sparking the police chase.

But he said such attacks are “unstoppable terrorism.”

“It’s impossible to stop unless the person’s already on your radar,” Gurski said. Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson called the suspect a “lone wolf,” adding “random acts of sick people are difficult to anticipate.”

Stephanie Carvin, a terrorism expert at Carleton University, said the attack looked unsophisticated.

“It seems to have been carried out very badly (thankfully) so probably not a mastermind here, folks,” she said on Twitter.

“But attacks against crowds and sports fans has been a HUGE fear in Canada over the l ast 18 months. This will not help that.”

Amarnath Amarasingam, an expert on extremism at the University of Waterloo, said the Edmonton attack appears to be a “fairly typical ISIS-inspired one,” although it may be difficult to confirm.

The group has recently been sloppy about claiming credit for attacks and is also reluctant to do so when attackers are in custody, he said.

The group has long called on followers to attack wherever in the world they may be, Amarasingam added.