Shooting in Sydney: Attackers Had Trained in Australia, Police Report

According to investigation documents released on Monday, Australian police report that the two attackers involved in the antisemitic attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney trained in Australia. They reportedly conducted "reconnaissance" at the site a few days before the massacre.

The investigation into the antisemitic attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney is progressing. Australian police state that the two attackers trained in Australia prior to the December 14 shooting that left 15 dead, according to court documents revealed on Monday, December 22.

According to the same investigation documents, police also reported finding a video on a mobile phone in which Sajid and Naveed Akram, the father and son responsible for the massacre, are seated in front of a flag of the jihadist group Islamic State, reciting a passage from the Quran and denouncing the "Zionists."

Furthermore, the attacker who was injured, son Naveed Akram, was transferred from the hospital where he was being treated to a prison, police said. His father, who had been disarmed by a bystander, was subsequently shot dead by police.

Still according to these court documents, Sajid and Naveed Akram also conducted "reconnaissance" at the Australian beach a few days before the massacre.

Local Government Strengthens Gun Laws

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called on Monday for bipartisan support to establish "an aggravated offense for hate speech" and other new laws in this area.

"We will not let terrorists inspired by the Islamic State group win. We will not let them divide our society, and we will overcome this ordeal together," Anthony Albanese told reporters.

Anthony Albanese had condemned the Bondi attack as an "antisemitic terrorist act" carried out by men inspired by "an ideology of hatred" and motivated by "the ideology of the Islamic State group."

The vehicle found near Bondi Beach, registered in the name of son Akram, contained two Islamic State flags and improvised explosive devices, police said immediately after the attack.

The government of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, already presented on Monday what it called "the strictest gun reforms in the country," following the worst massacre in the continent-country in nearly 30 years.

The new law will reduce the number of permitted firearms to four per individual. Exempt persons, such as farmers in this vast rural country, will be allowed to own up to ten firearms.