Canada Terrorist Attack: Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser Planned to Attack Rail Line

The details surrounding the thwarting of a major terrorist plot in Canada were released at a press conference on Monday at the Toronto RCMP Airport Detachment.

The suspects, identified by CNN as Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser, were arrested in Quebec and Ontario for conspiring to attack a VIA rail line of a passenger train between New York and Canada.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the investigation was “part of a cross-border operation involving Canadian law enforcement agency (The RCMP and the CSIS) and the FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security” and that the suspects have been under police surveillance for over a year.

Officials said: "They had the capacity and intent to carry out these criminal acts… there was no imminent threat to the public, rail employees, train passengers or infrastructure."

It was also confirmed that Esseghaier and Jaser are connected with Al-Qaeda. Ottawa Bureau chief, Robert Fife, told CTV this afternoon: “I am told that the two people who have been arrested, they are linked somehow to al Qaeda.”

The CBC reports that the Canadian terrorist plot is not linked to the tragic Boston Marathon bombing that occured last week, nor the Algerian gas refinery attack also committed in January earlier this year. Esseghaier and Jaser are being held in Toronto and are expected appear at the Old City Court House tomorrow morning.