Sydney Shooting Suspects Met Muslim Leaders in Philippines, Officials Say By Jason Gutierrez Reporting from Davao City, Philippines

A soldier inspecting a bus at a checkpoint along a highway in Davao City, Philippines, on Thursday.Credit...Ezra Acayan/Getty Images

NY Times : Intelligence authorities in the Philippines say the father and son apparently slipped out of Davao City during their monthlong stay, but details remain sketchy.

Islamic State take extremist mission to Philippines.

The father-and-son attackers accused of carrying out the deadly shooting on Australia’s famous Bondi Beach appeared to have met with local Muslim religious leaders during their sojourn to the Philippines last month, intelligence authorities said on Sunday.Sajid Akram and his son, Naveed, slipped out of the southern city of Davao to visit Muslim religious leaders in the city of Panabo, an agricultural community about 20 miles to the north, during their monthlong stay in November, the authorities said.

Who specifically they met in the area and what was discussed are still being investigated, they added.The suspects’ stay in Davao just ahead of their rampage on Bondi Beach in Sydney, killing 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration, has raised questions about a possible resurgence of militancy in the southern Philippines. Australian officials have described the Dec. 14 attack as an act of terrorism inspired by Islamic State ideology.

Davao is the largest city on the island of Mindanao, the country’s southern hub, which is home to a smattering of long-simmering Islamist insurgencies, some involving groups that claim loyalty to the Islamic State.

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