Australia links the shooters to the Islamic State and reveals they had traveled to the Philippines

BarcelonaThe authors of the shooting at a Jewish celebration on Bondi beach, In Sydney, they may have been inspired by the Islamic State, specifically following a recent trip to the Philippines taken by the father and son, according to Australian authorities. Police also revealed that homemade explosives and two Islamic State flags were found in the son's car. Until now, Canberra had maintained that there was no indication of radicalization of the perpetrators, beyond a 2019 investigation that was dropped.

Authorities have identified the perpetrators of the Hanukkah attack that killed 15 people and injured around 40 as Sajid Akram, who was shot dead by police, and his son Naveed, who was arrested. According to police, the father obtained a firearms license in 2023, although his son, a bricklayer by trade, had been investigated by intelligence services in October 2019 for his alleged associations with other individuals. An investigation that, according to the Australian press, was linked to an Islamic State cell. There is no indication that it remained under police surveillance. Philippine authorities confirmed the trip abroad and described Sajid as an Indian citizen: father and son arrived in the country on November 1, visited Davao in the south, and departed on November 28. Authorities will now analyze whether this trip, along with Sajid obtaining a gun license, the purchase of six firearms, and Naveed's alleged links to Islamic extremism in 2019, are related. Terrorist groups

Clarke Jones, an academic at the Australian National University (ANU) who has worked with imprisoned extremists in the Philippines, explained in The Guardian It is unlikely that tourists will receive training from terrorist groups like the Islamic State or Abu Sayyaf, which are usually located in the south of the country, due to its geographical isolation and the dangers of travel. Even so, he noted that private military training, not linked to extremist groups, is available in the country. Jones also highlighted the close intelligence cooperation between Australia and the Philippines, which should allow them to determine what the father and son were doing during their visit.