DETROIT — The armed man who His pickup truck crashed At a large Detroit-area synagogue earlier in March, it was inspired by the Iran-backed movement Hezbollah armed group The FBI said Monday that it sought to inflict as much harm on the Jewish people as possible.
Jennifer Runyan, the head of the FBI in Detroit, who announced the new information, said that Ayman Ghazali filmed a video just minutes before the attack on Temple Israel in the town of West Bloomfield, saying he wanted to “kill as many of them as possible” in the large Jewish community.
Ghazali, 41, sat in the parking lot for a few hours on March 12 before crashing his F150 through the doors and into the entrance to an early childhood education area, striking a security guard. He then exchanged gunfire with another guard before shooting himself. no Another one in between 150 children and staff were injured.
“It was an act of terrorism inspired by Hezbollah that deliberately targeted the Jewish community and the largest synagogue in Michigan,” Runyan said.
She said he sent two final videos to his sister outside about 10 minutes before launching the attack.
“This is the largest gathering place for Israelis in the state of Michigan in the United States,” Runyan quoted him as saying in Arabic. “I have booby-trapped the car. I will enter by force and start shooting at them. God willing, I will kill as many of them as possible.”
The FBI cited other videos and photos discovered on Ghazali’s social media accounts in which he espoused revenge and Hezbollah’s extremist ideology. Runyan said he researched synagogues and Jewish cultural sites in Michigan a few days ago before settling on Temple Israel, and even looked for time for lunch.
Runyan said there was no way to know if Ghazali knew the children would be present at that time.
Ghazala said she bought a Kalashnikov rifle and 300 rounds of ammunition from a gun store on March 9 and trained at the shooting range.
His Ford F150 was equipped with commercial fireworks and containers containing more than 30 gallons (113 liters) of gasoline. Runyan said that the truck caught fire after it entered the synagogue, although there was no explosion.
Detroit District Attorney Jerome Gorgon noted that in 1983 Hezbollah drove a massive truck bomb into US Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.
“This is exactly what this terrorist did a few weeks ago in our backyard,” Gorgon said, speaking with Runyan.
The FBI has not released the entirety of Ghazali’s videos and materials, but it has shown screenshots and quotes from many of the recordings.
Ghazala, who lived in Dearborn Heights, came to the United States in 2011 on a direct lineage visa as the spouse of a US citizen, and became a US citizen in 2016, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
His family ties to Hezbollah were publicly revealed shortly after the synagogue attack. The Israeli army said that his brother, Ibrahim Ghazali, was A Hezbollah leader In Lebanon, he was killed there on March 5. A mosque in the Detroit area held a memorial service for the brother and other family members who also died.
Ghazali’s ex-wife was Call the police in Dearborn Heights around the time of the attack on the synagogue to warn that he appeared distraught and suicidal after losing his family during the Israeli airstrike, according to Voice 911. The strike came days after Iran’s war with Israel and the United States began on February 28.
Founded in 1982 during Lebanon’s civil war, Hezbollah was initially dedicated to ending the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. Israel withdrew by 2000, but Hezbollah continued its fight and sought to destroy Israel. The United States has designated Hezbollah as a terrorist group since 1997. Hezbollah is also a political party with legislators in the Lebanese parliament and a presence in most Lebanese governments for decades.
Temple Israel, which has more than 12,000 members, is part of Reform JudaismIt is the largest branch of religion in North America, which emphasizes progressive values such as social justice and gender equality. The congregation is the second largest, according to the Union of Reform Judaism.
The attack was the latest in a series of recent attacks Attacks targeting religious buildings – Which led to intensified fear among religious leaders and worshipers around the world.
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Associated Press reporter Ed White in Detroit contributed to this story.