Islamic State’s official radio station Al-Bayan aired a statement Saturday saying the December 2 mass shooting in California was carried out by two of its “supporters”.
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The couple stormed a gathering of his work colleagues in San Bernardino, California, on Wednesday, opening fire with assault-style rifles and killing 14 people.
“Frankly, the most important thing we can do is figure out ways to prevent or predict when these are going to happen so we can stop them before they happen”, Rahr said, “because there’s no way – with the best training and equipment in the world, we [only] have about two or three minutes before the worst of it is usually over”.
It was not until Friday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was investigating the massacre as a terrorist attack.
It also came after reports that Malik made a public declaration of loyalty to ISIS’ leader while the attack was underway. The news network CNN quoted American officials who stated yesterday that investigators believe Tashfeen Malik had pledged allegiance to the Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and that she had posted this on a Facebook page under a different name.
The source was not at liberty to discuss what was being sought or what was taken away – if anything – from the house because the warrant application was filed under seal.
And as we piled across the threshold, we encountered not the remnants of some medieval torture chamber – or even the evidence of a fanatical terrorist cell – but all the trappings of domestic mundanity: powdered baby food in the kitchen, a cot in the upstairs bedroom, nappies, books and tapestries and several copies of the Quran. The man is not a suspect, officials have said.
Authorities have said in addition to terrorism, workplace issues with religion is a possible motive.
Malik’s ISIS post was taken down by Facebook as per the company’s policy, which doesn’t allow any posts that “support or glorify” terrorism, a spokesman reportedly said.
Farook was born in Chicago to Pakistani parents and raised in Southern California.
“They would walk over to each other’s yards to talk to each other”, said Escamilla, who added that he saw the two working on cars together. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Zarar Khan in Islamabad, Pakistan; Asim Tanveer in Karor Lal Esan, Pakistan; Aya Batrawy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and Amy Taxin in Los Angeles. “Malik provided an address in this Pakistani town when she applied for an American visa in 2014, an address ABC News discovered today does not exist”.
And investigators found evidence the two deleted their social media accounts and destroyed their mobile phones the day before the shootings. Farook’s last communication with the contacts was months ago. Investigators are still trying to get a clearer picture of what drove Farook and Malik. “We don’t know yet what they mean”, the official said.
One lawyer for the couple’s family said links between Farook and potential terror suspects were “tenuous” at best. Once there, he cut off all contact with the family and, according to relatives, turned to a “stricter form of Islam”.
Yesterday, authorities with guns drawn raided a home next door to the house where Farook’s family used to live in California, breaking windows and using a cutting torch to get into the garage, neighbours said.
The bomb-making equipment and the thousands of rounds of ammunition have all been removed, and the tan-coloured townhouse which Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik called home has now returned to normal.
The shooters didn’t make it easy for authorities to track their digital footprints. An identity card said she was 29 years old at the time of the shootings.
Farook had no criminal record, and neither he nor his wife was under scrutiny by local or federal law enforcement before the attack, authorities said.
An explosive device was later found at the scene of the shooting, but failed to go off.
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The New York Times, in its first front-page editorial since 1920, said it was “a moral outrage and a national disgrace” that the sort of firearms used in the attack were readily available.
