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 celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach packed their car with homemade explosives and ISIS flags, raising fears that the massacre was part of a wider attack plot than initially thought.

During a press conference, investigators called the father and son gunmen, aged 24 and 50, “cowards” who preyed on Jewish Australians “in broad daylight.” Fifteen people died and more than 22 were injured in this shooting which the police have officially described as a terrorist attack inspired by ISIS.

New South Wales police have confirmed that the small attacker’s car was loaded with IEDs and two homemade ISIS flags, evidence authorities point to strong motivation and a clear intention for a large-scale, coordinated attack. Forensic teams are still conducting ballistic and chemical tests of the materials.

“This was a brutal attack on Jewish Australians,” Australian police commissioner Krissy Barrett said. “They are hunted in broad daylight.”

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

Mal Lanyon, New South Wales Police Commissioner, said the suspects went to the Philippines last month. Their reasons for the trip and where they went in the Philippines will be investigated by investigators, said Lanyon.

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

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Decades of military offensives, however, have greatly weakened Abu Sayyaf and other such armed groups, and Philippine military and police officials say there are no recent signs of foreign terrorist presence in the country’s south.

Officials said there was currently no evidence that other attackers or instigators were involved in Sunday’s massacre, but officials warned that this assessment could change as investigators review digital devices, travel records and thousands of seized documents.

Tuesday is the first time officials have confirmed their beliefs about the suspects.

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More than twenty people, aged from 10 to 87, are still being treated in hospitals after Sunday’s massacre. Ten of them, including three patients at the children’s hospital, are in critical condition.

Among the wounded is Ahmed al Ahmed, 42, who owns a fruit shop, born in Syria, who was captured on video talking and disarming one of the attackers, before pointing the man’s weapon and putting it down. On Wednesday, he underwent surgery for gunshot 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 want. We will unite. We will embrace each other, and we will get through this,” Albanese said.

The old gunman was shot dead while his son was being treated at the hospital on Tuesday.

Albanians and other Australian state leaders have pledged to strengthen the country’s already strict gun laws in what would be the biggest changes since a gunman killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania in 1996.

Officials released more information as public questions and anger grew in the third day following the attack about how the suspects were able to plan and execute it and whether Australian Jews were adequately protected from rising antisemitism.

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

“Suspected murderers, regardless of how they allegedly planned their attacks, appeared to have no regard for the age or strength of their victims,” ​​Barrett said. “It seems that the accused killers were looking for the number of dead.”