FBI says man who crashed his truck into Michigan synagogue was inspired by Hezbollah

A man who crashed his pickup truck into a Detroit-area synagogue earlier in March was carrying out an attack inspired by the Iran-backed group Hezbollah and had sought to inflict as much damage as possible, the FBI said on Monday.

Ghazali, 41, of Dearborn Heights sat in the car park for a few hours on March 12 before smashing his truck through closed doors and into the hallway of an early childhood education area, striking a security guard.

No one else among the 150 children and staff was injured.

It was a “Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism purposely targeting the Jewish community and the largest Jewish temple in Michigan”, Runyan said.

She cited videos and other images discovered on Ghazali’s social media accounts in which he embraced vengeance and Hezbollah’s militant ideology. Runyan said he searched for Michigan synagogues and Jewish cultural sites a few days before the attack before settling on Temple Israel, even looking up the time for lunch.

Runyan said there was no way to know whether Ghazali knew children would be present at the time.