Israel confirms Michigan synagogue attacker’s brother was Hezbollah terrorist commander
The brother of a terrorist who rammed a vehicle into a Michigan Jewish preschool was a Hezbollah commander, Israel Defense Forces have said.
Ayman Muhammad Ghazali, 41, was shot dead after driving the vehicle into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., on Thursday.
His brother, Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali, was responsible for managing weapons operations within a specialized branch of Hezbollah’s Badr Unit, the IDF said in a statement Sunday morning.
This unit of the Lebanese terror group is responsible for launching hundreds of rockets toward Israeli civilians throughout the recent war with Iran, the IDF said.
Ghazali’s two brothers, a niece, and a nephew were killed in an Israeli airstrike on March 5 in the town of Mashgharah, Lebanon, just days before the attack, a local official told AP Friday.
The family had sat down for their fast-breaking meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan when they were struck.
Ghazali, who was allowed into to the US in 2011 as the spouse of a US citizen, was granted US citizenship under President Obama in 2016, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
On Thursday, he drove some 38 miles from his house in the heavily Muslim Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights to Temple Israel, one of the largest Reform synagogues in the country, which also includes a school and an early childcare center and school.
After crashing his car, which was packed with fireworks and gasoline jugs, he exchanged fire with an armed security guard before eventually fatally shooting himself after becoming stuck in the blazing vehicle.
Ayman Muhammad Ghazali, 41, was shot dead after driving a vehicle into the temple on Thursday.None of the 140 children, teachers and staff inside the synagogue were injured in the attack, thanks to the fast actions of Temple Israel’s private security.
“If they had not all done their jobs almost perfectly, we would be talking about an immense tragedy here with children gone,” US Sen. Elissa Slotkin (Dem., M-17) told a news conference Friday.
In Dearborn Heights, a mosque held a service for Ghazali’s relatives last weekend.
The mosque’s leader, Imam Hassan Qazwini, said on Friday that he had only seen Ghazali once, and condemned the synagogue attack.
“Islam forbids holding innocent people accountable for acts done by others,” Qazwini told AP.
“The unjustified Israeli attack on civilians in Iran and Lebanon gives no blank check to anyone attacking synagogues, civilians and peaceful communities,” he said.
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