From CBS News: The Israeli military said Sunday that the brother of Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, who is accused of carrying out last week’s attack at a Michigan synagogue, was a Hezbollah commander who was “eliminated” in a strike last week.
In a statement on social media, the Israel Defense Forces said Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali was responsible for managing weapons operations for the unit within the U.S.-designated terrorist group.
“The unit is responsible for launching hundreds of rockets toward Israeli civilians throughout the war,” the IDF said, adding Ibrahim Ghazali was killed in an airstrike on a Hezbollah military structure last week.
A Lebanese official, who requested anonymity because he could not publicly discuss details of the airstrike, confirmed to the Associated Press that Ibrahim Ghazali was killed. The official told AP that Ibrahim Ghazali’s children, Ali and Fatima, and brother, Kassim, were also killed in the strike that hit their home just after sunset.
Citing anonymous sources, CBS News says a freelance journalist it works with confirmed that the two brothers were members of a Hezbollah rocket unit in southern Lebanon.
FBI spokesman Jordan Hall, from the Detroit office, would not confirm the report, saying instead, “Out of respect for the ongoing investigation, we will continue to refrain from commenting on its substance.”
Ayman Ghazali, a Lebanese-born U.S. citizen, rammed a truck into Temple Israel synagogue, injuring a security guard and starting a fire that led dozens of officers to suffer from smoke inhalation. He died by suicide after exchanging fire with the guard.
Shortly after the shooting, Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun seemed to offer some sympathy for Ghazali when he announced that he had “lost several members of his own family … in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon.”
Baydoun did not mention the family’s ties to Hezbollah. It is unclear whether he knew the details when he made the statement.
Read more at CBS News
The Dennis Michael Lynch Podcast archive is available below, with the most recent on top. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show by downloading The DML News App or go to Apple Podcasts.
