The father and son duo suspected of carrying outa massacre at Sydney's famed Bondi Beachon Sunday were "driven by Islamic state ideology," police say, as Philippines authorities confirmed the pair recently traveled to a part of that country which has long been a hotbed of extremism.
The two men are 50-year-old Sajid Akram, who was killed exchanging gunfire with police; and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram, who is in custody at the hospital and is expected to face significant charges.
Australian counterterrorism official believe the pair underwent military-style training while in the southern Philippines last month, public broadcaster ABC reported on Tuesday.
Two homemade Islamic State flags were found in a vehicle registered to the younger suspect, who was previously assessed by the country's domestic security agency and deemed not to be a threat, police said.
Authorities say the gunmen targeted Jewish Australians celebrating the first night of the festival Hanukkah. The attack, whichkilled 15 people, is in the country's worst mass shooting in almost 30 years.
There is currently no evidence to suggest there were any more individuals involved, police said.
Here's what we know so far about the suspects.
What were their motives?
The shooting appears to have been inspired by extremist "Islamic State ideology," according to Australian leader Anthony Albanese.
New South Wales police said on Tuesday that the vehicle registered to the younger suspect contained improvised explosive devices – and two homemade ISIS flags.
Albanese said the evidence of the flags showed that the "radical perversion of Islam is absolutely a problem" both in the country and around the globe.
Authorities believe the two men "weren't part of a wider cell," helping them to evade detection, Albanese told public broadcaster ABC.
But the younger suspect was previously known to federal security services.
The son was investigated for six months by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in 2019 "because of his connections with two people who subsequently … went to jail," Albanese said. But that investigation concluded there was "no evidence" he had been radicalized.
The 24-year-old was not subject to ongoing monitoring after the probe ended, but authorities are now investigating "whether he was radicalized further after that," Albanese said.
The father, a licensed gun owner, was interviewed as part of that 2019 investigation, but also showed "no indication of any radicalization," Albanese added. He said he did not know if authorities questioned whether the father possessed weapons at the time.
"Antisemitism, of course, has been around for a very long period of time – that's the point. Islamic State is an ideology that, tragically, over the last decade, particularly since 2015, has led to a radicalization of some people to this extreme position, and it is a hateful action," Albanese said.
An imam who provided Quran lessons to Naveed Akram told CNN the 24-year-old had approached the Al Murad Institute for lessons on Quran recitation and Arabic language in 2019. He continued his lessons for a year.
"I condemn this act of violence without any hesitation," Sheikh Adam Ismail said in a video message.
"Not everyone who recites the Quran understands it or lives by its teachings, and sadly, this appears to be the case here," he added.
They traveled to the Philippines
Police are now investigating a trip the Akrams took last month to the Philippines, as they try to work out how the duo were radicalized.
"The reasons why they went to the Philippines and the purpose of that and where they went when they were there is under investigation at the moment," said Mal Lanyon, the police commissioner in the state of New South Wales, on Tuesday.
Lanyon said he was not aware of any security alert being triggered when the pair travelled. "I don't believe it was an intelligence failure at all," he said.
Philippine authorities confirmed to CNN on Tuesday that the Akrams arrived together on November 1, 2025. They listed their final destination as Davao –– a major city on the southern Island of Mindanao – and left the country from Manila on November 28, according to the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation.
Mindanao, the second-largest island in the Philippines haslong been wracked by terrorism and unrest.
It is home to several Islamist insurgent groups, including Abu Sayyaf, which has been blamed for a number of attacks on civilians and Philippine government troops, as well as the kidnapping of several foreign nationals.
In 2017, Abu Sayyaf – along with the Maute group, another Mindanao-based militant organization – captured and occupied Marawi, the country's biggest Muslim-majority city. The violence forced more than 350,000 residents to flee the city and the surrounding areas before Philippine forces liberated the city after a bloody months-long siege.
ASIO, Australia's national security agency, describes the Philippines as a hotspot for the Islamic State East Asia (ISEA), an offshoot of the main Islamic State group,on its website.
"ISEA remains a deadly terrorist threat in the Philippines, with the Southeast Asia country a target destination for foreign terrorist fighters," reads the ASIO website. "While there are no known links between ISEA and Australia, there have previously been links between Australians and terrorist groups in the Philippines."
Who are they?
The Akrams are believed to have lived in the western Sydney suburb of Bonnyrigg. A home linked to the pair was raided by police on Monday. Naveed Akram had worked as a bricklayer, while Sajid ran a fruit shop, according to local media reports.
Naveed Akram was born in Australia, while his father, Sajid, immigrated to the country in 1998, Home Affairs minister Tony Burke said on Monday. The elder Akram arrived on a student visa, and later transferred to a partner visa in 2001.
In the years since then, he had taken just three trips overseas, returning on a resident return visa each time, said Burke.
Officials would not confirm Sajid Akram's country of origin. When asked on Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that information was "part of the investigation … So, I can't go into that detail."
The Philippines immigration bureau confirmed Sajid Akram was traveling on an Indian passport, and his son Naveed was traveling on an Australian passport. CNN has reached out to India's external affairs ministry for comment.
Father had a firearms license
Police seized six guns owned by Sajid Akram, who had a gun license, following the attacks. Some of those were found during raids on two properties linked to the pair — one at the Bonnyrigg home, and the other at an AirBnb in the suburb of Campsie, where the pair stayed in the days leading up to the attack.
Lanyon said Sajid Akram "met the eligibility criteria for a firearms license" and held a "recreational hunting license."
There are two types of hunting licenses, Lanyon said: the ability to hunt on a property or as part of a hunting club — or "gun club" — which is the type of license the suspect held.
On Tuesday, Lanyon said Sajid had initially applied for a firearms license in 2015, but his application lapsed in 2016 after he failed to provide a photo as required. He applied a second time in 2020, and the license was issued in 2023.
"The firearms that we have seized were attached to that license appropriately," Lanyon said.
Footage of Naveed Akram shooting at crowds from the pedestrian bridge overlooking Bondi Beach and verified by CNN showed he was proficient at using a bolt action rifle, firing off four rounds in just over five seconds.
CNN's Lex Harvey and Isaac Yee contributed reporting
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