This is a timeline of Islamic State activities related to Australia and New Zealand, collectively known as Australasia. The events below include terrorist and extremist activities of Islamic State supporters in Australia and New Zealand, Australians and New Zealanders who travelled overseas to join the Islamic State (a journey that was referred to by the group as hijra) or attempted to, and depictions of Australians and New Zealand in Islamic State propaganda on social media and in I.S. state media. It also includes Australia and New Zealand's military and intelligence involvement in the war against the Islamic State.
The most deadly terrorist attack on Australian soil was the Islamic State-inspired 2025 Bondi Beach shooting (detailed timeline), allegedly committed by Naveed Akram and his father Sajid Akram (who was killed by police during the attack), targeting Jewish Australians at a Hanukkah gathering at Bondi Beach. Before this, several Islamic State plots were successfully thwarted by Australian intelligence and law enforcement bodies.
Background
Islamic State
The Islamic State movement self-describe as "Islamic" but their religious beliefs are an unusual derivative of Islam, that has been rejected by the vast majority of Muslims, including Islamic terrorists and Islamic extremists. Progressive and conservative Muslims alike describe the ideology of the Islamic State as "deviant". The Islamic State excommunicate other Muslims, calling them infidels or apostates.
Islamic State militants violently oppose â and are violently opposed by â many of the groups that are listed terrorist organisations in Australia's Criminal Code, Such as al-Qaeda, the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), Hezbollah (listed since 2021), Hamas (listed since 2022), and Iran's IRGC (the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, listed in November 2025).
Some of their most deadly attacks have been against Shia Muslims, including civilian and military targets in Iran, a Shia-led Islamic Republic. Iran charges Islamic State militants with "waging war against God" (Moharebeh) and terrorism against civilians, among other crimes. The ideology of the Islamic State rejects the concept of nation-states and cultural identity. Followers of the Islamic State ideology, including in Sydney, have no interest in recognition of rival states. Symbols such as national flags are shuned by the movement. One violent manifestation of this opposition to nationalism is the active armed conflict between Islamic State's Khorasan "Province" (ISK) and the Taliban in Central Asia, whom ISK ridicule as "filthy nationalists".
Australian migrants to the Islamic State
Prior to the Bondi attack, one of the most significant Islamic State-related problems faced by the Australian government were the family members of Islamic State fighters from Australia, who remain in detention camps in the Middle East, in Kurdistan and neighbouring regions. ASIO estimates that over 200 Australians migrated to the unrecognised state / illegitimate Caliphate founded by the Islamic State movement while they controlled territory in Iraq and Syria. Young boys who have been there nearly a decade are transferred to the mens prison when they reach military age. The survivors are mostly widows and children, most of the men died of the battlefield or were killed in targeted strikes. The are also a few remaining Islamic State fighters from Australia who have been confirmed alive or remain unaccounted for. The Australian Government have been criticised for treating the ongoing situation as somebody else's problem.
2013 to 2018
2014
2015
- 11 March 2015 â Jake Bilardi (an 18-year-old Italian Australian from Melbourne, also known as Abu Abdullah al-Australi, and dubbed Jihad Jake by the media) killed himself in a truck bombing against the Iraqi army, after migrating to Iraq to join an ISIS-affiliated group.
- 20 April 2015 â An 18-year-old from New Zealand joins IS and is reported missing. New Zealand and Australia are concerned about IS-related terrorism at Anzac day.
- 9 September 2015 â Joshua Ryne Goldberg, a Jewish American internet troll, was arrested for planning a bombing in Kansas City while posing as an Australian ISIS supporter. A 17-year-old Melbourne teenager who had been in contact with Goldberg pleaded guilty to preparing a terror attack, after bombs were found in his home. Goldberg's ISIS persona also attempted to incite mass shootings in Australia. Goldberg reportedly set up a fake account in the name of Australian Muslim preacher Junaid Thorne. Goldberg also created multiple fake jihadist accounts, which interacted with the fake Thorne account, and he then sent screengrabs of the fabricated interactions to journalists, at least one of whom published the fake interaction in an article of The West Australian in April 2015. The fake jihadist personas were also used to besmirch Amnesty International and the Human Rights Law Centre by claiming that the fake jihadists had employment ties, or donated money to, these organizations.
- 14 September 2015 â Two Australian Hornet fighter aircraft destroyed an IS armoured personnel carrier with a precision-guided missile in east Syria.
- 25 November 2015 â Samra Kesinovic, an Austrian teenager who traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State, is reported dead, having been beaten to death by the group after trying to escape from Raqqa. Her companion, Sabina Selimovic, was reported to have been killed in fighting in Syria in September.
2016
- 31 January 2016 â A prominent Australian IS member's death is reported. Neil Prakash, also known as Abu Khaled al-Cambodi, was involved in the group's online recruitment activities.
- 6 February 2016 â An Australian man is deported from India after Indira Gandhi International Airport security personnel reportedly find pro-IS material on his laptop.
2017
- Isaac El Matari jailed in Lebanon.
- By 2017 the Islamic State had lost 90% of their territory.
- 15 July 2017 â Failed Islamic StateâÂÂlinked plan to bomb an Etihad Airways flight departing Sydney for Abu Dhabi. Brothers Mahmoud and Khaled Khayat in Sydney planted a bomb in luggage belonging to their brother Amer Khayat, using parts sent to them by a forth brother, Tarek Khayat, from overseas. Amer was found not guilty, he was used as an unwitting proxy, possibly because his brothers disapproved of his drinking and other habits.
2018
- August 2018 â Australia stripped the Australian citizenship from five terrorists who had travelled to fight with the Islamic State and barred them from entering Australia again. This was only possible because they had double citizenships because international law stops the measure from being used on individuals with only one citizenship. The five brought the total to six.
- 9 November 2018 â a man named Hassan Khalif Shire Ali went on a stabbing spree in Melbourne Australia. The attack took place on a crowded Melbourne street where he attacked and killed a police officer with a knife and light bulb. The attacker also injured two other bystanders until he was eventually killed by law enforcement. The perpetrator supported IS and IS also took responsibility for the attack.
2019
March 2019
The Islamic State were declared "defeated" in Iraq and Syria by their opponents.
On 15 March 2019 â An Australian terrorist killed 51 people in the Christchurch shooting, inspired by the antisemitic Great Replacement conspiracy theory and the death of an 11-year-old girl in an ISIS attack. The Christchurch attack featured in Islamic State propaganda with Abu Hassan al-Muhajir calling for attacks on the âÂÂnations of the Cross and the apostateâ in retaliation for the attack.
ASIO investigations in 2019
- Youssef Uweinat was convicted of terrorism and imprisoned, for attempting to recruit minors to carry out attacks for IslamicState.
After 2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
January 2024
- January 2024 â A new Commonwealth offence introduced as part of amendments to Australian counter-terrorism legislation outlawing transmission of violent extremist material online. First person sentenced in March 2025.
May 2024
- 17 May 2024 â IS-K claimed responsibility for the 2024 Bamyan shooting in Afghanistan, in the city of Bamyan, Bamyan Province, that led to the deaths of 6 people, including 3 Spanish tourists, as well as injuring 8 people, including one Lithuanian, one Norwegian, one Australian and another Spaniard. The majority of the targeted victims were foreign tourists. In Afghanistan, the 2024 Bamyan shooting: Gunman attacked a group of Western tourists (Spaniards, Lithuanians, Norwegians, and Australians), alongside their Afghan guides, in the city of Bamyan, Bamyan Province with machine-gun fire, killing seven people (including four tourists), and wounding seven others (including three tourists) before fleeing the scene. Islamic State claimed responsibility.
2025
March 2025
- 20 March 2025 â A 19-year old West Australian man is sentenced to three yearsâ imprisonment by the Perth District Court on one count of transmitting violent extremist material online and one count of using a carriage service to cause offence after sharing Islamic State-produced videos that included beheadings and recordings encouraging violence. He is the first person convicted and sentenced in Australia for transmitting violent extremist material online under the new Commonwealth offence introduced in January 2024 as part of amendments to Australian counter-terrorism legislation.
August 2025
- 3 August 2025 - Two past supporters of Islamic State, connected to Naveed Akram in 2019, were noticed trying to exploit public protests to further a conflicting agenda. Both men were later reported as a past associate of Naveed Akram from 2019. Youssef Uweinat (sometimes known by the kunya Abu Musa al-Maqdisi) was imprisoned from 2019 to 2023 for terrorism-related offences, after trying to recruit 17 and 18-year-olds to pledge loyalty to the Islamic State cult, a role that some media described as an Islamic State "youth recruiter". He has since claimed to no-longer support the cult. Uweinat was photographed waving a black flag (used by ISIS, Al Qaeda, and other groups) at the edges of a protest on the Harbour bridge. Both men were later reported as a past associate of Naveed Akram from 2019. William Haddad (see "June 2025" above) posted the flag image on social media saying, "The only flag that counts!" A report from ABC News Australia described the preacher as having "no interest in a Palestinian state" and trying to "exploit and fracture the pro-Palestinian movement".
December 2025
- 14 December 2025 â Bondi Beach shooting: Two ISIS inspired gunmen fired upon approximately one thousand people at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. A total of 16 people were killed, including a ten-year-old child and 40 people were injured.
See also
Notes
References
Citations
Sources