Canadian government officials have confirmed reports that two Canadians from London, Ont., were involved in a terrorist attack on a gas plant in Algeria earlier this year.
Ali Medlej, 24, and Xristos Katsiroubas, 22, were among those killed in the January attack that left at least 38 hostages and 29 militants dead.
The two men were reportedly high school friends who grew up in London, said CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife.
Officials have now informed the families of the two men that their sons were involved in the attack and were killed in the fighting, which began on Jan. 16 when al Qaeda-linked militants ambushed the gas plant.
The bloody, four-day siege ended when Algerian forces stormed the compound in January.
Local police in London -- as well as the RCMP and CSIS -- are investigating whether other young men from the region were involved.
Police also want to know how Medlej and Katsiroubas -- reportedly a convert to Islam -- were connected with the Algerian terror cell.
Sources say two of their friends -- also from London -- travelled overseas with them last year, and that those two are still alive and somewhere abroad.
All four young men were identified and “radicalized” by talent spotters in southwestern Ontario, sources say.
Algerian officials had reported in January that at least one Canadian was involved in the attack, prompting the RCMP to travel to the country to conduct its own investigation. They were able to confirm both men’s identities through fingerprint and DNA analysis.
Family members reportedly concerned about the two men contacted authorities in 2007, however, the pair wasn't prevented from leaving the country last year when they travelled to Algeria.
Friends of Katsiroubas say they are stunned.
“He liked to fool around, have fun,” one friend told CTV News. “He was fairly well-liked.”
The pair’s former principal said both men were unremarkable.
At a news conference in London on Tuesday, representatives from the London Muslim Association denounced the attack, saying the association and local mosque did not know the men or their families.
Dr. Munir Elkassam, Imam for the Islamic Centre of Southwestern Ontario, said while there is a duty for the community as a whole to condemn violent actions, the fact that the pair were from London has “no bearing whatsoever” on what happened in Algeria.
He said the Muslim community in London does not engage in or teach radicalized or extremist thought, and said it’s important that people separate the violent acts from religious connotations.
“When something like this happens that puts a religious identity on a terrorist attack we should all come together to denounce that and say that faith and terrorism is an oxymoron,” he said. “They do not exist together. “
Elkassam told CTV’s News Channel there are fears now about the potential for backlash against local Muslims, as people tend to associate such incidents with the community that carries the same faith as the perpetrators.
“Unfortunately, it is the ordinary Muslim living anywhere who will be suffering because people tend to make that association,” said Elkassam, who added he is calling on people of all backgrounds to come together to fight “global terrorism.”
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, who is currently travelling overseas, deflected questions Tuesday about the Canadians' role in the attack, referring reporters to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and Canada’s security agencies.
"Our intelligence services, our law enforcement agencies have been doing some important work and I think it's best if I refer you to them for further comment," Baird said during a conference call from the United Arab Emirates.
"I'm travelling in the Middle East right now, and the only thing I can do is refer you to the minister."
When asked to comment more broadly on the problem of homegrown terrorism in the country, Baird said it is a challenge common to many parts of the West, adding: "It's obviously something that deeply concerns us."
For his part, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Tuesday that while he can’t comment on specifics, the matter is being taken very seriously.
“Canada is not immune to this phenomena of domestic radicalization of people growing up in Canada, who are born with every advantage in this country, turning to forms of violent extremism.”
Police and intelligence services are addressing those issues, Kenney said.
“I think we have to be vigilant about this, but we should also be grateful to the fact that Canada, unlike many European countries, has not faced violent acts here in Canada because of this so-called homegrown radicalization.”
The standard intelligence profile that’s been developed of so-called homegrown terrorists in western countries is typically a male adolescent who feels alienated from his normal peer group and is seeking something to believe in, Kenney told CTV’s Power Play Tuesday.
“They’re often at an age in life where they’re willing to make big sacrifices for a cause,” he said, adding such individuals are not typically living on the margins of society.
“It’s not rational. Clearly, we’re talking about young people, who typically have every advantage of growing up in Canadian or other prosperous western democracies.”
Often times, such an individual stumbles across extremist ideas on the Internet, only to then cultivate those beliefs in a local network of like-minded individuals.
Kenney said the Internet is “replete” with forums, discussion boards and websites devoted to extremist ideas, to which certain individuals fall prey.
“You’re a young person looking for a way to make sense of this complicated world and you go to a series of websites that present this kind of bizarre, utopian extreme version -- in this case of radical Islam -- and suddenly everything clicks, and the world makes sense,” he said.
“And that’s the problem, that’s how seductive this stuff can be.”
Robert Barrett, security analyst for de novo group, told Power Play that the role the Internet plays in recruiting these “band-of-brother” affiliations speaks to the massive decentralization that al Qaeda has gone through in recent years.
“The voice of al Qaeda is asking for the grassroots youth to rise up in their own countries to commit these types of violent acts,” Barrett said.
Canada’s spy agency says more than two dozen Canadians are in terror groups abroad.
With a report from CTV’s Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife
