Detroit attacker's brother was a Hezbollah missile unit chief

The Israeli military revealed Sunday that Ayman Mohammad Ghazali,  the man who carried out a deadly attack on a Detroit-area synagogue, was the brother of a Hezbollah anti-tank missile unit commander eliminated by an Israeli airstrike just days earlier.

Israeli Army Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee confirmed that Ayman's brother, Ibrahim Mohammad Ghazali, was a senior Hezbollah operative killed in an Israeli strike on March 5 in Machghara, western Bekaa Valley. A third brother died in the same strike, according to Lebanese media — his identity not yet disclosed by the Israeli military.

The revelation draws a direct line between Hezbollah's terror network in Lebanon and a mass casualty attack on American soil.

Ayman Mohammad Ghazali, 41, arrived in the United States in 2011 on a spousal visa and became an American citizen in 2016, according to FBI Special Agent Jennifer Runyan.

On Sunday, he drove a pickup truck directly through the synagogue's entrance doors and opened fire from inside the vehicle. Security personnel immediately engaged him. His truck caught fire, trapping him inside, and at some point during the exchange of gunfire, Ghazali shot himself in the head.

This attack does not exist in a vacuum. It comes as Hezbollah wages war against Israel from Lebanese territory, and as the Iranian-backed organization's network of operatives, sympathizers and family members extends far beyond the Middle East.