The two terrorists who perpetrated the Bondi Beach attack appear to have been motivated by ISIS. They join a number of recent incidents around the world in which it appears ISIS could be making a comeback. Why is this happening now, and is it a trend?
First of all, let’s look at what we know. It appears the father-and-son terror team in Australia put a large ISIS-style flag in their car for all to see as they prepared the attack.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation noted, “One of the Bondi Beach gunmen came to the attention of Australia’s domestic intelligence agency six years ago for his close ties to a Sydney-based Islamic State terrorism cell, the ABC understands. Earlier today, police revealed the two Bondi Beach gunmen were a father and son: Naveed Akram, 24, who is in the hospital under police guard, and Sajid Akram, 50, who died exchanging gunfire with officers on Sunday.”
It also has been reported that the men travelled to the Philippines and may have met with extremists there. There have been Islamic State and extremist Islamist groups operating in the Philippines for years.
ISIS has often preferred large attacks with high body counts abroad. They carried out major attacks in Paris in 2015, Brussels in 2016, and Istanbul in 2016, as well as the Sri Lanka Easter bombings in 2019. These attacks resulted in huge numbers of people killed. In Sri Lanka, 277 people were killed, and 130 were murdered in Paris.
ISIS continues to have global reach
On Saturday, there was an attack on US forces in Syria. The Americans were working with Syrian government forces near Palmyra and were engaged in a meeting. US Central Command has said that the attack was linked to ISIS, and Syria has sought to blame the attack on ISIS. However, the full details of what motivated the perpetrator are not clear.
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces did say that they apprehended an ISIS cell on December 1. Overall, the level of ISIS activity in Syria is unclear. The group may have up to 2,000 fighters in Syria. It also has thousands of detainees in eastern Syria in the Roj and al-Hol camps and some prisons. Many of the detainees are women and children, family members of ISIS members.
In Poland, a 19-year-old student at the Catholic University of Lublin, who allegedly has ties to ISIS, was arrested for plotting to attack a Christmas market.
EuroNews noted, “A first-year law student at the Catholic University of Lublin was arrested by Poland’s Internal Security Agency over a foiled plan to commit a terrorist attack, officials said. Mateusz W, 19, a Polish citizen from a Catholic family, allegedly intended to join a terrorist organization and was planning an attack in a public place in support of the so-called Islamic State group. He was arrested on 30 November and will remain in custody for three months.”
There have also been ISIS-linked plots in Israel. A terror cell was thwarted in October 2024, reports said at the time. In early December 2025, an 18-year-old was detained for planning an ISIS-inspired attack. In November, reports in the US said two Michigan men had been arrested over a Halloween plot that was linked to ISIS.
This would appear to show that ISIS continues to have a global reach and inspires plots around the world. The question is whether any of this is coordinated with any kind of ISIS command, or whether ISIS is the go-to ideology for extremists, the way al-Qaeda once was. It appears more likely that many of these ISIS-inspired plots are the embers of what was once the large ISIS group that controlled part of Syria and Iraq.
Things have changed since ISIS was largely defeated in 2019 in Syria. There are still many extremist groups, particularly in the Sahel in Africa; however, ISIS appears to be very fragmented. Nevertheless, the group continues to percolate onward. It has played a role in massacres in Mozambique, for instance.
Africanews noted earlier this year, “The threat posed by Islamic State and al-Qaeda extremists is escalating in Africa and Syria, according to a new UN report released Wednesday. UN experts say Africa remains the epicenter of terror activity, with groups like al-Qaeda-linked JNIM in West Africa and al-Shabaab in the East steadily expanding territory.”
ISIS may be trying to revive itself. However, it is still fragmented with no real base of operations, and its command structure has been shattered in Syria. This means it may continue to move forward, zombie-like, able to inspire and perhaps even train some extremists, without clearly being able to guide them all.