The Attempted Domestic Terror Attack on a U.S. Air Force Base

By Noah Rothman

Thursday, March 26. 2026

 

Domestic American law enforcement is on high alert as the U.S. and Israel execute combat operations against the world’s chief state sponsor of terrorism. But what the Islamic Republic of Iran can’t reach, its sympathizers in the West can.

 

On Thursday, the FBI arrested siblings Ann Mary Zheng and Alen Zheng for allegedly attempting to target Florida’s MacDill Air Force Base with an improvised explosive device. The plot the pair are charged with executing and attempting to conceal was not an impulsive endeavor.

 

The explosive device the pair placed inside MacDill AFB was designed to be just one of several bombings, according to the video that claimed credit for the attempted attack.

 

Via ABC News:

 

It also includes a timeline for a series of threats targeting the base last week, including the suspicious package discovered on March 16 and another threat that led to a lockdown at the base later in the week, according to the paper’s reporting.

 

According to the newspaper, the person talking in the video is in silhouette and appears to be speaking in an altered voice. The person in the video claimed to be affiliated with a group that is against the war in Iran and U.S. deportation policy.

 

If law enforcement has established a motive for this attack, officials have not made their determination public. But those familiar with the pattern of behavior displayed in this attack can identify its features.

 

The weapon: an explosive device. The effort to claim credit for it via messages to the press. An attempt to warn targets in advance, to target property while minimizing casualties. And the attackers expressing their hope that this act of violence will advance not just one cause but a whole suite of them — causes that just happen to align with the activist class’s foremost bugbears to maximize the act’s political relevance.

 

Fortunately, this attempted attack was thwarted. But would-be attackers only have to be lucky once. And there can be no doubt that these attempted bombers will inspire imitators.