As the war in Iran enters its third week, there have been a string of troubling attacks on the homefront.
On March 1, a day after Operation Epic Fury began, a Senegalese national and naturalized U.S. citizen reportedly wearing a sweatshirt that said “Property of Allah” and a shirt underneath with an Iranian-flag theme, opened fire at a popular bar in downtown Austin. Three people died and thirteen were injured during the incident. The gunman was also killed.
Two IEDs were hurled at anti-Islam protesters outside the mayoral residence in New York City in an attack last weekend that is being investigated as an “act of ISIS-inspired terrorism.” The homemade explosives did not detonate and no one was killed, but Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, have been charged with material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and use of a weapon of mass destruction. Balat could be heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” as he threw the device and again as NYPD officers placed him in the back of a police vehicle.
On Thursday, two more attacks with potential ties to radical Islam and the Iran conflict – one on a Virginia college campus and one at a Michigan synagogue – left an innocent victim dead. Both assailants were also killed.
Old Dominion University Shooting
A shooting at Old Dominion University in Virginia killed one and wounded three. The gunman, who was killed thanks to the heroic action of students, has been identified as 36-year-old Mohammed Bailor Jalloh, a former Virginia Army National Guardsman who was convicted of providing material support to ISIS in 2016.
The New York Post reported an ROTC student jumped into action after Jalloh shot the class instructor, stabbing him to death. Two of the injured were transported to the hospital and are in stable condition. A third unidentified victim sought independent medical treatment and was released. The U.S. Army Cadet Command confirmed two members of the school’s ROTC program were shot.
Jalloh reportedly walked into a classroom around 10:45am, asked if it was an ROTC class, and then opened fire after someone confirmed it was. The class instructor, Lieutenant Colonel Brandon A. Shah, was fatally shot. The decorated veteran served several tours in the Middle East after enlisting in 2003 and was chairman of Old Dominion’s military science department.
FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed on X that the shooting is being investigated as terrorism. “The shooter is now deceased thanks to a group of brave students who stepped in and subdued him – actions that undoubtedly saved lives along with the quick response of law enforcement,” he wrote. “The FBI is now investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism.”
Jalloh, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone, pleaded guilty in 2016 to providing material support to a terrorist organization after he met with someone he believed was helping coordinate a terror attack in the U.S. and sent $500 to what he thought was an ISIS contact but was really an FBI confidential human source (CHS).
Jalloh allegedly told the CHS he decided not to reenlist in the National Guard after listening to deceased Al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awalaki in the Arabian Peninsula. Jalloh had taken a six-month trip to Africa where he had met with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) members in Nigeria and began communicating online with the ISIL member who later introduced him to the CHS.
According to the Department of Justice at the time, Jalloh praised the gunman who killed five U.S. service members in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and expressed a desire to carry out an attack similar to the one at Fort Hood that claimed 13 lives and wounded 32 more.
Jalloh was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2017 but was released in December 2024 before completing the full term. The reason for his early release is unclear.
Temple Israel Attack
Hours later, a man drove a truck carrying explosives into a Michigan synagogue and preschool. Security for Temple Israel, located in West Bloomfield Township, exchanged gunfire with the attacker, killing him. Investigators found his body in the vehicle badly burned, after aerial footage showed a plume of smoke emanating from the roof. Authorities also recovered a rifle and a “large amount of explosives.”
The New York Times reported eight first responders required treatment at area hospitals for unspecified injuries. One security guard was taken to the hospital after being struck by the vehicle, according to The Daily Mail, and is expected to recover. Remarkably, no students or staff were injured in the attack.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the perpetrator was Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, a Lebanese-born man granted U.S. citizenship in 2016. Overnight Wednesday, Ghazali reportedly posted photos of his family members, including two young children, who are believed to have been killed in a recent Israeli strike on Lebanon.
Temple Israel posted on Facebook Thursday that all were safe and accounted for. “All 140 students in our Susan and Harold Loss Early Childhood Center, our amazing staff, our courageous teachers, and our heroic security personnel are all accounted for and safe,” the post noted. “As you have no doubt heard, Temple Israel was the victim of a terrorist gunman who was confronted and neutralized by our security personnel who are truly heroes. Our teachers followed their training and kept the children safe and calm.”
Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the FBI office in Detroit, told reporters that her agency is leading the investigation and described the incident as “a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.”
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