In brief: Mall shooting prevented, Canadian police say

TORONTO – A senior police official said Friday police foiled a plot by two suspects who were planning on going to a mall and killing as many people as they could before killing themselves on Valentine’s Day in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The official told the Associated Press the suspects were on a chat stream and were apparently obsessed with killing and death and had many photos of mass killings. Police and other officials said it was not related to Islamic terrorism.

The official said one of the two suspects, a 23-year-old American woman from Geneva, Illinois, was arrested at Halifax’s airport and confessed to the plot. The official said she prewrote a number of pronouncements to be tweeted after her death.

The official said the 19-year-old male shot himself to death after police surrounded his parents’ home.

Iraqis stop base attack; 400 U.S. troops nearby

Washington – Iraqi forces repelled an Islamic State militant attack Friday on an air base in western Iraq where some 400 U.S. troops are present, according to accounts from the Pentagon and the Iraqi military.

Assailants with suicide vests led the assault, which involved 20-25 Islamic State fighters, some wearing Iraqi military uniforms, Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters in Washington.

No U.S. combat personnel were involved in the battle at Al Asad Air Base, the spokesman said.

“At no time were U.S. troops anywhere near the fighting,” said Kirby, who added that U.S. personnel were “at least a couple of miles” away. “So they might have heard shots being fired, but that would have been about it.”

The air base, in a remote desert area of Iraq’s western Anbar province, is a sprawling facility about the size of Boulder, Colorado, that was a major hub for American forces during the 2003-11 U.S. occupation of Iraq. Almost 800 Iraqi troops are training at the base, the Pentagon said in a statement.

The attackers on Friday reached the perimeter of the facility, Kirby said, but it was not clear whether the base was breached. At least eight assailants were reported killed. There was no definitive word on Iraqi military casualties.