Israel says brother of Michigan synagogue assailant was Hezbollah commander killed in strike
By Oren Liebermann, CNN
(CNN) — The Israeli military said the brother of the man who drove a vehicle laden with explosives into a Michigan synagogue Thursday was a Hezbollah commander killed in a strike last week.
In a statement Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces said the assailant’s brother, Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali, was in charge of managing weapons operations in the Iranian proxy group’s Badr unit.
IDF Arabic language spokesman Avichay Adraee said Ibrahim Ghazali was killed March 5 when the IDF struck a Hezbollah military building used to store weapons.
The Department of Homeland Security said Ayman Ghazali, 41, drove a vehicle into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township near Detroit before exchanging fire with security officers and dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
A security guard was injured and dozens of first responders were treated for smoke inhalation, while the more than 100 children in the building were uninjured, authorities said. The FBI called the attack a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.”
The mayor of the Lebanese town of Mashghara previously told CNN that Ayman Ghazali’s brothers, including Ibrahim, were killed in an airstrike March 5. Ibrahim Ghazali’s children were also killed in the strike, the mayor said.
The IDF made no mention of Ayman Ghazali’s other brother, Kassim, who was also killed in the strike.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
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