Still in mourning, Khan and her husband Farhan Khan were visibly shaken by news that their sister-in-law Tashfeen Malik reportedly pledged her allegiance to ISIS shortly before the attack.
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The post was later removed – it is not clear if the posting was made before or after the attack.
Citing details such as the crude explosive devices that investigators say were built by Malik and Farook, Carrie’s federal source said that as of now, investigators are exploring the possibility that Malik and Farook may have essentially “self-radicalized” after being inspired to action by ISIS.
“This is looking more and more like self-radicalization”, a law enforcement official said.
Malik, 29, and her US-born husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, stormed a gathering of civil servants in San Bernardino, California, on Wednesday, opening fire with assault rifles and killing 14 people.
They described Malik as a devoted home-keeper who closely followed religious traditions.
Malik, who grew up in Saudi Arabia, came to the United States past year under a fiancee visa, sponsored by her American citizen husband. Later she became a lawful permanent resident. The couple had a 6-month-old daughter; they left the baby with relatives Wednesday morning before the shooting.
Saudi officials also said that Malik had not raised any red flags while she was living in Saudi Arabia.
Investigators are still looking into the circumstances of how the couple met and what led them to carry out the attack.
Nila said she never saw Malik after the reception, which mosque director Mustafa Kuko said 250 to 300 people attended.
“The reason for that is that the investigation so far has developed indications of radicalisation by the killers and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organisations”, FBI Director James Comey told reporters during a joint news conference with the US Attorney General Loretta E Lynch.
The U.S. officials and Facebook figure who discussed the couple’s online activity spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the matter publicly.
“She was very conservative”. She was helping raising the children. A year before she got married, she started to dress more conservatively and began wearing a scarf that covered all but her nose and eyes, the maid said. And in Pakistan on Sunday, the interior minister said the country has launched its own investigation and offered assistance to US authorities.
Meanwhile, other law enforcement official were quoted by news agencies and CNN as saying that Malik had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and its leader on Facebook. “She was a practicing Muslim, she believed in the religion and she was just doing the five prayers a day, the fasting…”, he said. “There is no indication that they are part of a network”. But it wasn’t something that they would be getting together every single day or every single week. “They were a quiet family”, Allen added, referring to Farook’s family.
Afarin Rahmani, 44, said she felt “guilty” that someone from her community was responsible for the shootings.
Farook, who was born in the United States, and Malik were killed in a firefight with police hours after the attack, leaving investigators to comb through their belongings to try to determine a motive.
“If the most evidence there is to any affiliation is a Facebook account under another person’s name… then that’s hardly anything at all”, Chesley said.
Hundreds of FBI employees, meanwhile, are working the case, interviewing people, gleaning information off the Internet, conducting searches and analyzing evidence, bureau spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.
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He said the couple answered an ad on Craigslist.
