Intel further confirms Bondi Hanukkah terror attack was ‘ISIS-inspired,’ says Australian PM

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday that online video feed picked up by the country’s intelligence further confirmed that the antisemitic mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday was inspired by the Islamic State terror group. “We’ve been informed that the Office of National Intelligence has identified a regular online video feed from ISIS that reinforces that this was an ISIS-inspired attack,” Albanese told reporters in Canberra, where he also announced a gun buyback plan and a “day of reflection” to embrace the Jewish community on Sunday.

Islamic State itself said in a lengthy statement on its Telegram channel that the terror attack on Sunday was a “source of pride” but did not claim responsibility for it. Australian police are investigating whether the terrorists, identified as father-and-son duo Sajid and Naveed Akram, met with Islamist extremists during a visit to the Philippines weeks before the shooting.

Meanwhile, Australian police said seven men detained in Sydney’s southwest on Thursday have possible ideological connections to the two terrorists who killed 15 people and wounded dozens at the Jewish community’s candlelighting event at Bondi that marked the first night of Hanukkah. “We don’t have definitive links between the individuals who committed these atrocities on Sunday and this yesterday apart from potential commonality in some thinking, but no associations at this stage,” New South Wales state Police Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson told ABC Radio on Friday. (Source)