The terror group claims Malik, 29, and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, were “supporters” of ISIS.
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This undated combination of photos provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, left, and the… The FBI is investigating the attack as “an act of terrorism”.
“Two followers of Islamic State attacked several days ago a centre in San Bernardino in California”, the group’s daily online radio broadcast al-Bayan said yesterday. “It confirms IS inspiration not direction”, he wrote on Twitter. Farook had worked for the San Bernardino county health department for five years and neither he nor his wife were known to security services.
Early Saturday, authorities with guns drawn raided a home next door to the house where Farook’s family used to live in Riverside, California, breaking windows and using a cutting torch to get into the garage, neighbors said. The couple died hours later in a shootout with police. The mother stayed mostly to herself at the home, upstairs, and “everyone was in shock” after details of the rampage emerged, Chesley said. At home, they had 12 pipe bombs, tools to make more explosives and well over 4,500 rounds, police said.
While US President Barack Obama’s team said it has not yet found evidence that the couple was part of an organized group or broader terrorist cell, “several pieces” of information “point to the perpetrators being radicalized to violence”. A dozen victims were county of San Bernardino employees.
Until the attack, Malik had maintained a low profile in her adopted homeland.
They had a six-month-old daughter who is now in child protective custody, according to family members. He urged legislators to pass “common sense gun safety laws” and to pass a law that would prevent those on the “No Fly” list from purchasing firearms in the U.S. The Huffington Post says that all four guns used in the attack were purchased legally; however, CNBC cited Burguan, who told reporters that the party from which Farook and Malik obtained the “assault style rifles” is being investigated.
Tashfeen Malik came back to Pakistan and studied pharmacy at Multan’s Bahauddin Zakaria University from 2007 to 2012.
A witness said the attackers fired for about 30 seconds before calmly reloading and opening fire again.
Malik was born and raised in Pakistan and moved to Saudi Arabia at age 19.
Former college classmates of Malik’s and others who knew her in Pakistan said that in recent years, she began dressing more conservatively – including wearing a black head-to-toe garment or a scarf that covered almost her entire face – and became more fervent in her faith. The maid spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing her employment with the family.
The Facebook official said the company discovered Wednesday’s post by Malik the next day, removed the profile from public view and reported its contents to law enforcement. Though most are men, “women are taking an increasingly prominent role in the jihadist world”, the report said.
The Pakistani relatives of the female shooter involved in this week’s killing spree in California say she and her father seem to have abandoned the family’s Islamic traditions and become Takfiris during the time they spent in Saudi Arabia.
If Wednesday’s mass shooting proves to have been the work of people inspired by a militant group, it would mark the deadliest such attack in the U.S. since September 11, 2001.
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David Bowdich, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said investigators determined the shooters attempted to destroy evidence, including crushing two cellphones and discarding them in a trash can.
