Federal authorities are investigating attacks across multiple states over the past week as part of what officials and analysts described as an elevated terrorism threat, unfolding while the United States remains embroiled in the Iran war and while counterterrorism functions at the FBI and Department of Justice have been disrupted by firings and resignations. In New York City, federal authorities said two men inspired by the Islamic State brought homemade bombs to a far-right protest outside the mayoral mansion. In Michigan, a naturalized citizen from Lebanon rammed his vehicle into a synagogue near Detroit, where he was shot at by security before he shot himself. In Virginia, an attacker who had been previously imprisoned on a terrorism conviction opened fire in a university classroom after officials said he was heard yelling “Allahu akbar,” and the suspect was killed by students.
The sequence of incidents has prompted concerns that U.S. counterterrorism capabilities may be strained. The AP report said the firings and resignations, along with resource and personnel diversion over the previous year toward other priorities, have contributed to worries about whether the system can spot and disrupt a potential surge in threats. Frank Montoya, a retired senior FBI official, said in an interview that “So much experience has been decimated from the ranks,” and described how “The folks that were best positioned to get to the bottom of it before something really bad happened” are no longer with the government, leaving less experienced personnel “starting from way behind.”
The FBI did not comment on personnel numbers and decisions but said “agents and staff are dedicated professionals working around the clock to defend the homeland and crush violent crime.” The bureau added that it “continuously assesses and realigns our resources to ensure the safety of the American people,” in a statement included in the AP reporting. In parallel, the Justice Department’s National Security Division, established in 2006 to address terrorism, espionage and other threats, has faced internal reassignment and turnover. The AP report said that in the last year, some division lawyers were assigned to review Jeffrey Epstein files to prepare them for release, and that prosecutors and senior leadership in sections dedicated to counterterrorism and counterintelligence have seen departures.
The AP report also set the attacks against a broader terrorism assessment that ties risk to Iran’s history while noting uncertainty about explicit motivation. Iran has vowed revenge for the U.S. and Israel killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the Iranian government has long professed determination to carry out violence on American soil, according to the AP summary. The report pointed to past plots, including a disrupted murder-for-hire plot targeting former national security adviser John Bolton in response to the 2020 assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Separately, the AP said a Pakistani business owner who claimed he was acting on instructions from a contact in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was convicted in New York last week of trying to hire hit men in 2024 for assassination plots targeting public figures, including President Donald Trump, who was then running for president.
Even so, the AP report said officials have not indicated that either the men arrested in connection with the explosives in New York or the man responsible for the university classroom attack were motivated explicitly by the Iran war. The report said the synagogue attacker lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon last week, citing an official in Lebanon. The AP also described how, despite focus on proxies and hired hands, Iran’s ability to organize a large-scale assault in the United States remains unclear. It said the FBI warned law enforcement in a recent bulletin about Iran’s aspiration to conduct a drone attack targeting California, but that officials emphasized after the warning was publicized that the intelligence was unverified and that no specific plot was known to exist.
Officials and retired security officials described a recurring challenge in counterterrorism: preventing violence by lone actors who radicalize independently. The AP report said that in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the U.S. overhauled its intelligence and national security apparatus, but lone actors influenced online have still carried out shootings. The report cited examples including the 2015 ambush attacks at military sites in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and a rampage in Orlando in the following year by a gunman who killed 49 people. Edward Herbst, a retired FBI official, said in the AP report that “They’re self-directed,” adding that “That’s what makes them really lethal,” because “You never know when they’re going to rise up. You never know when and where they’re going to attack.”
Claire Moravec, a former FBI national security official who served as deputy homeland security adviser in Illinois, said terrorism concerns tend to rise during times of international conflict, when overseas military action is accompanied by increased vigilance, tip sharing between federal and local law enforcement, and closer coordination among FBI joint terrorism task forces. She said the broader effect is not about “surveillance” but about maintaining awareness of how international events could become domestic security risks. In an email quoted in the AP report, Moravec said, “Ultimately, the goal during these periods is not ‘surveillance’ but maintaining a broad awareness of how international events could translate into domestic security risks, so that threats can be identified and disrupted early.”
The AP report also tied the staffing disruption concerns to the transition of personnel within the counterterrorism apparatus. It said FBI Director Kash Patel fired dozens of agents, most recently about a dozen employees who worked on the counterintelligence investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The report quoted Matthew Olsen, who led the National Security Division during the Biden administration, as saying on the Lawfare podcast that “This is not an exaggeration to say that they are not as capable as they were a year and a half ago,” and that they “lost, forced out, fired, the most capable, the most experienced FBI agents, FBI officials and DOJ prosecutors, that were working on the Iran threat.”
Montoya described how the loss of experienced personnel can affect the practical work of counterterrorism, particularly relationships with sources and institutional knowledge that build over time. He said, “There was no transition,” describing how fired agents were “just walked out of the building,” and that while new staff could potentially ask prior workers, “you’re still introducing a brand new face into the equation.” The AP report said it was in the national security realm—where experience and source development matter most—that the loss of continuity can be “a crushing blow,” according to Montoya.
Sources: Associated Press (Eric Tucker, March 13, 2026). AI-generated with CC0 methodology disclosure. License: CC0 1.0.