Bondi Beach gunmen had bombs, ISIS flags and foreign links, police say

Australian authorities said on Tuesday that the father and son who opened fire on families during a Hanukkah event in Sydney’s Bondi Beach had packed their vehicle with improvised explosive devices and homemade ISIS flags, deepening fears that the massacre was part of a broader attack plot than initially believed.

During a news conference, investigators called the gunmen, father and son, aged 24 and 50, “cowards” who hunted Australian Jews “in broad daylight.” Fifteen people were killed and more than two dozen wounded in the shooting, which police now formally describe as an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack.

New South Wales Police confirmed that the younger attacker’s vehicle contained improvised explosive devices and two homemade ISIS flags, evidence that authorities say points directly to extremist inspiration and an apparent intention to carry out a larger coordinated assault. Forensic teams are still conducting ballistic and chemical examinations of the objects.

“This was a barbaric attack on Australian Jews,” said Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett. “They were chased in broad daylight.”

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Authorities said they are still working to determine whether the devices were functional or intended for secondary targets.

Mal Lanyon, New South Wales state police commissioner, said the suspects traveled to the Philippines last month. Investigators will look into the reasons for the trip and where in the Philippines they went, Lanyon said.

The region has long been home to networks linked to ISIS. Muslim separatist militant groups, including the Abu Sayyaf in the southern Philippines, once expressed support for ISIS and have in the past hosted small numbers of foreign militant fighters from Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

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However, decades of military offensives have considerably weakened Abu Sayyaf and other similar armed groups, and Philippine military and police officials say there have been no recent signs of foreign militants in the south of the country.

Authorities said there is currently no evidence that additional attackers or facilitators were involved in Sunday’s massacre, but warned that this assessment could change as investigators review digital devices, travel records and thousands of seized documents.

Tuesday marked the first time officials confirmed their beliefs about the suspects’ ideologies.

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There are more than two dozen people, ranging in age from 10 to 87, still receiving treatment in hospitals after Sunday’s massacre. Ten of them, including three who are patients at a children’s hospital, are in critical condition.

Among the injured is Ahmed al Ahmed, a 42-year-old Syrian-born fruit shop owner, who was caught on video attacking and disarming an assailant, before pointing the gun at him and then putting it on the ground. He was scheduled for surgery Wednesday for shotgun wounds to his left shoulder and upper body.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who met Ahmed earlier, hailed him as “a true Australian hero”.

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“We are a brave country. Ahmed al Ahmed represents the best of our country. We will not allow this country to be divided. That is what the terrorists are looking for. We will unite. We will embrace each other and we will get through this,” Albanese added.

The older gunman was shot dead while his son was also being treated at a hospital on Tuesday.

Albanese and leaders of some of Australia’s states have pledged to tighten the country’s already strict gun laws in what would be the most sweeping reforms since a gunman killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996. Since then, mass shootings in Australia have been rare.

Officials released more information as public questions and anger grew on the third day after the attack about how the suspects were able to plan and execute it and whether Australian Jews had been sufficiently protected from growing anti-Semitism.

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Albanese announced plans to further restrict access to guns, in part because it emerged that the older suspect had amassed his stash of six guns legally.

“The alleged killers, called out about how they allegedly coordinated their attack, appeared to have no regard for the age or ability of their victims,” ​​Barrett said. “It appears that the alleged killers were only interested in obtaining a death count.”