ISIL radio: Two supporters carried out San Bernardino massacre
A day after federal officials revealed that a woman who took part in the mass shooting in San Bernardino had pledged support for the Islamic State, that extremist group reported over its official online radio service that the man-and-wife team who killed 14 were supporters of the organization.
"Two followers of Islamic State attacked several days ago a center in San Bernardino in California," the group reported on its Al-Bayan daily broadcast, according to Reuters. But the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, stopped short of claiming responsibility for the violence.
The Islamic State report praised the attack, but did not characterize Syad Farook, 28, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27, as members of the group.
U.S. officials reported Friday that Malik had pledged support for ISIL and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in a posting on Facebook immediately before she and her husband opened fire on a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino Wednesday.Both later died in a gun battle with law enforcement after they tried to flee in a black SUV.
The pledge of support to al-Baghdadi is not the first case of this happening in a terror incident in the United States. In May, Elton Simpson, one of two Islamic State sympathizers killed during an attempted attack in Garland, Texas, pledged his loyalty to al-Baghdadi in a tweet immediately before the incident. Simpson and an accomplice were carrying assault weapons and wearing body armor as they tried to enter a location where there was a contest featuring depictions of the prophet Mohammed.
FBI Director James Comey said Friday that the shooting spree, which also injured 21, was being treated as a "federal terrorist investigation," but that there was no indication the couple were part of a cell or network or being directed by any group. President Obama, in his weekly radio address Saturday, said "it is entirely possible that these two attackers were radicalized to commit this act of terror. And if so, it would underscore a threat we've been focused on for years — the danger of people succumbing to violent extremist ideologies."
Considerable attention is being focused on Malik, who was born in Pakistan and entered the U.S. on a fiancee visa last year, according to the FBI.The New York Timesreported Saturday that she passed two rounds of criminal and national security background checks before obtaining the visa and a resident green card. Malik first connected with Farook online and they met when he traveled to Saudi Arabia, and then he brought her to the USA in 2014. The two were married in Riverside County in August, 2014, according to the Associated Press.
Farook, who was an environmental health specialist, was born in the USA.
The lawyers for his family described Malik Friday as a "housewife" who cared for the couple's six-month-old daughter in their nearby townhouse. They said that when relatives came to visit, women would gather separately in another room. Malik, they said, was a devout Muslim who wore a burqa during those visits so that male relatives never saw her face and she was conservative in her actions, always refraining from driving a vehicle.