FBI confirms Michigan Jewish temple ramming a ‘Hezbollah-inspired terror attack’

The FBI has formally classified a vehicle attack on a Michigan synagogue earlier this month as an act of terrorism inspired by Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militant group designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the United States since 1997. In a press briefing on Monday (Mar 30), Jennifer Runyan, the FBI's special agent in charge for Detroit, said that "Based on the evidence gathered to date, we assess this attack to be a Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism purposely targeting the Jewish community and the largest Jewish temple in Michigan."

Hezbollah ordered "lone wolf" attack?

The FBI had previously identified the attacker as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41-year-old Lebanese-born man. On March 12, Ghazali drove a pickup truck into Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, a Detroit suburb. The vehicle, packed with fireworks and gasoline, became wedged in a hallway and caught fire. Ghazali then killed himself with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A security guard was injured, and several law enforcement officers were treated for smoke inhalation. No other fatalities were reported.

According to Jerome Gorgon, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, contrary to the FBI's "Hezbollah-inspired" framing, Ghazali had "acted under Hezbollah's direction and control." He argued the legal distinction between direct orders and ideological influence was irrelevant. Whether Hezbollah's current leader personally directed the attack or Ghazali simply answered the group's broader call to violence, Gorgon said, it amounts to the same thing under the law.

"Terrorist propaganda is designed to activate the so-called lone wolf to act on behalf of the terrorist organisation, and it makes no legal difference if the current leader of Hezbollah himself, Naim Qassem, called this man and told him to attack Temple Israel, or whether he simply heeded Hezbollah's call to kill Jews," said Gorgon.

Iran war triggered the attack on the Jewish temple?

Reports suggest that personal grief was a factor in the timing of the attack. According to the New York Times, Ghazali's brother Ibrahim, Ibrahim's two children, and another brother named Qassem were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon on March 5, just one week before the attack. Runyan acknowledged that in the days leading to the attack, Ghazali researched Jewish cultural, religious, and educational centres in the Detroit area while acquiring materials for the attack.

However, she noted that Ghazali had already been consuming pro-Hezbollah content before his family was killed. About ten minutes before driving into the synagogue, he sent a video to his sister stating his intention to "kill as many of them as I possibly can."

Was Ayman Mohamad Ghazali on the FBI watch list?

Runyan confirmed Ghazali was not on a federal terror watch list prior to the attack and was not under investigation. Authorities said there is currently no evidence of additional conspirators.