Michigan synagogue attacker was inspired by Hezbollah, FBI says | Michigan
The gunman who attacked a synagogue in Michigan earlier this month was inspired by Hezbollah, the FBI said Monday.
Jennifer Runyan, head of the FBI’s Detroit field office. announced It was revealed at a press conference that 41-year-old Ayman Ghazali had frequently consumed Hezbollah-related content online before the attack. Ghazali said in a video recorded March 12 before driving his truck into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, a suburb northwest of Detroit, that he wanted to “kill as many of them as possible.”
Ghazali, a US citizen originally from Lebanon, shot and killed himself in the vehicle, which caught fire after crashing a truck into a synagogue.
Runyan detailed the scope of the investigation: “Despite the fire in the truck and the attackers’ efforts to erase its digital footprint, we processed hundreds of digital and forensic evidence. We interviewed more than 100 witnesses, family and co-workers.”
“Based on the evidence collected to date, we evaluate this attack as a Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism that specifically targeted the Jewish community and the largest Jewish temple in Michigan… The evidence indicates that the attacker was motivated and inspired by Hezbollah’s militant ideology,” he added.
According to Runyan, an FBI review of Ghazali’s online activities dating back to January revealed a “repeated search history” that included pro-Hezbollah and Iranian news channels, as well as videos about clashes and shootings. He also regularly followed Hezbollah’s current secretary general, Naim Qasim, as well as “news about Iran’s fatwa for all-out jihad against the US military.”
The FBI said that in the video he sent to his sister 10 minutes before the attack, Ghazali said: “This is the largest gathering place of Israelis in the US state of Michigan. I set a booby trap in the car. I will break in and start shooting at them. God willing, I will kill as many of them as I can.”
Ghazali entered the United States on a family visa in 2011 as the spouse of an American citizen and was naturalized in 2016. He lost two brothers, a nephew and a nephew in an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon earlier this month, according to a local official in Meshgara, central Lebanon. The attack came amid the ongoing US-Israeli war against Iran, which also includes Israeli strikes targeting Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces in Lebanon. substitution It consists of more than one million Lebanese.
Runyan said Ghazali shared several photos on Facebook both the day before and the morning of the attack of deceased family members, as well as of Iran’s former religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes in February.
According to Runyan, Ghazali wrote, “We will avenge his holy blood.”
In the days before the attack, Ghazali began investigating local synagogues starting in the early morning hours of March 9, Runyan said. Their online searches included phrases like “Largest gathering of Israelis in Michigan” and “Israelis near me.” Investigators added that Ghazali tried to delete his search history.
He also tried to buy a gun from two men, but they both refused. According to Runyan, he eventually purchased an AR-style rifle, 10 rifle magazines and about 300 rounds of .223 ammunition from a local gun store in Dearborn Heights.
Ghazali also ordered a rifle bag and 40 5.3-gallon water containers online and researched local fireworks dealers.
At the same press conference, US lawyer Jerome Gorgon, referring to the 1983 Hezbollah barracks attack on US marines in Lebanon with a truck bomb, said: “That’s exactly what this terrorist did in our backyard a few weeks ago. He methodically planned, armed himself, and then drove a truck loaded with explosives into a temple full of American children.”
Although several officers were treated for smoke inhalation, no one in the synagogue was injured, including all 140 children in the building’s kindergarten.
Since the beginning of the US-Israeli war against Iran, which has included Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Iran’s retaliatory strikes on US allies in the region, the conflict has taken a heavy toll across the region.
Accordingly Lebanese officials say more than 1,200 people, including 120 children, were killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon. At least 200 U.S. soldiers have been injured and 13 killed since the conflict began. Death toll increased in US-Israeli attacks in Iran about 1,500 people While Iran’s retaliatory attacks continue a dozen people There are dead people in the Gulf countries.
