WATCH: Vassy Kapelos explains what the RCMP wanted to learn from the last few seconds of the cellphone video made by a gunman who went on a rampage on Parliament Hill last fall.
The RCMP released the missing portion of previously unseen footage from the 73-second video Michael Zehaf Bibeau recorded shortly before the Ottawa shooting.
From inside of his car, Zehaf Bibeau recorded the video moments before gunning down Cpl. Nathan Cirillo in October while he stood guard at the National War Memorial and storming Centre Block, where he was shot and killed by Kevin Vickers.
WATCH: RCMP release unedited video of Michael Zehaf Bibeau’s message prior to attack on Ottawa.
The missing clip is from the beginning of the full video during which Zehaf Bibeau prays in Arabic and asks Allah to praise his actions and those of the mujahadeen.
He then urges similar attacks in Canada, and says his actions are a response to Canada’s military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“We are retaliating, the mujahedeen of this world,” Zehaf Bibeau says.
Ottawa shooting timeline: 10 hours of terror
“Canada’s officially become one of our enemies by fighting and bombing us and creating a lot of terror in our countries and killing us and killing our innocents.
“So, just aiming to hit some soldiers just to show that you’re not even safe in your own land, and you gotta be careful.”
WATCH: RCMP release of video Michael Zehaf Bibeau made before attack on Ottawa (Mar. 6, 2015)
RCMP investigators have had the video since the day of the shooting and RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson has said previously there were “sound operation” reasons for not releasing the footage.
The RCMP said Friday the agency chose not to release the 18-second clip because investigators believed it “could assist in determining the origin and nature of Michael Zehaf Bibeau’s radicalization to violence.”
In a statement, the RCMP said they also “needed time to fully analyze the language used, including the dialect of Arabic being spoken, consult subject matter experts and follow up on a number of investigative leads.”
– With files from The Canadian Press
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