Iran war puts many in US on high alert, but synagogue attack shows limits of vigilance

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WASHINGTON - US law enforcement officials are on heightened alert as the Iran war enters its third week, but the limits of their vigilance were on display as seeming lone-wolf attacks unfolded more than 800km apart in Virginia and Michigan on March 12 alone.

In Michigan, where a Lebanon-born man rammed an explosives-laden truck into the Temple Israel synagogue, it appeared to be one of the first known instances of a specific bombing in the Iran war leading to retaliatory violence on American soil since the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb 28.

Although the authorities have not announced a motive, the man, identified by US officials as Ayman Ghazali, carried out his attack a week after Israel bombed his family’s town in Lebanon on March 5, killing two of his brothers and a niece and nephew, according to news reports.

Around the same time as the synagogue attack, a man who was previously convicted of supporting a designated terrorist group fatally shot one person and injured two others, both US Army personnel, at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, which has close ties to the US military.

The Virginia attacker, who had been released from prison in 2024, was killed by Reserve Officers’ Training Corps students in the class who subdued him.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said on March 13 that it had no indication the incidents in Virginia and Michigan were connected.

Self-radicalised attackers hardest to detect

These kinds of lone-wolf outbursts of retaliatory violence are the hardest to spot in advance and intercept, counter-terrorism experts say.

“Someone who is self-radicalised, a lone wolf, is the hardest to track,” said Mr Kenneth Gray, a former FBI counter-terrorism agent who now teaches at the University of New Haven. “Normally, there would be opportunities to track weapon transfers, foreign training or transfers of funds. We apparently have none of that.”

The latest incidents took place with the US engaged in what is already a deeply unpopular war among American voters, which was launched after US President Donald Trump made drastic cuts to the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) intelligence unit.

Except for a security guard who was knocked down when the truck crashed through the entrance, everyone at the synagogue, including the children at its pre-school, escaped unharmed, although dozens of law enforcement officers were treated for smoke inhalation.

Ghazali, who became a US citizen in 2016 and lived in nearby Dearborn Heights, was killed by synagogue security staff. The FBI said he lacked any previous criminal history or registered weapons and had never been the subject of an FBI investigation.

Mr Shawn Brokos, who was an FBI official in Pittsburgh when 11 people were killed in the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in 2018, credited Temple Israel for a “textbook reaction” that protected those inside.

But the FBI was still looking into why Ghazali apparently failed to draw any scrutiny from security personnel while he sat parked in his truck in the synagogue carpark for two hours before launching his attack, special agent Dominique Evans told reporters on March 13.

The Michigan incident also showed the need for the public and the authorities to be on the alert for someone who might be embracing “a grievance narrative”, Mr Brokos said.

“They’re upset about current events,” said Mr Brokos, now the director of community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. “They’re starting to access weapons. They’re starting to make plans. These are all the things that are helpful for us to know so we can do these checks and share it with law enforcement.”

Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun said Ghazali’s attack must be unequivocally condemned, and also noted Ghazali had been affected by the Iran war, in which more than 2,000 people have been killed, mostly in Iran and Lebanon.

“The tensions we see across the world too often find their way into our own neighbourhoods, reminding us how deeply connected our shared safety is,” Mr Baydoun said in a statement.

Multiple security incidents, fewer in DHS intelligence

Since the war began, security scares have affected airports in Kansas City and the Washington suburbs; two men were charged with terrorism-related crimes after throwing homemade bombs at an anti-Muslim rally in New York City; and a man who expressed pro-Iran views online killed four people after opening fire at a bar in Austin, Texas.

Mr Trump has sought to defend his war to some lawmakers in Congress and, according to polls, many sceptical voters, including some of his “America First” base.

The DHS communicates significant threats to the American public through alerts under the National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS). DHS issued such an alert in June 2025, saying brief hostilities between the US and Israel and Iran had caused a “heightened threat environment” in the US.

That alert, which cited the risk of cyberattacks or violence from extremists already in the US, expired in September 2025.

There are no current NTAS advisories. Last week, the White House halted a bulletin from DHS, the FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center warning state and local law enforcement agencies of a heightened threat to the US because of the Iran war.

Since Mr Trump’s return to the White House in 2025 with vows to slash the federal workforce, the DHS intelligence and analysis unit went from about 1,000 employees to around 500 to 600, three former agency officials told Reuters. DHS did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr Travis Nelson, director of Maryland’s homeland security office, said DHS has been focused on Mr Trump’s mass deportation efforts in its public communications rather than the possible threat posed by the Iran conflict.

“It’s all about immigration enforcement,” Mr Nelson said. “We haven’t seen anything from Homeland Security about the potential risk to the homeland as a result of what’s going on in the Middle East.” REUTERS