Although in the post published by the women she promised loyalty to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the authorities clarified that there is no evidence that indicate that ISIS ordered the attack on his behalf. But it appears increasingly likely Islamic extremism played a role.
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To a reporter who asked if this was the first time Islamic State has attacked the US, Bowdich replied, “I think you’re taking a leap, we’re not there”.
The husband and wife died in a fierce gunbattle with authorities several hours after their commando-style assault on a gathering of Farook’s colleagues from San Bernardino, Calif., County’s health department Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015.
“At this point we have zero evidence of information that connects that to what happened here at the Inland Valley Regional Center”.
In addition to having recovering a large haul of ammunition from the couple’s apartment in San Bernardino, the Federal Bureau of Investigation also got huge electronic material which the couple unsuccessfully tried to destroy before being killed by the police. The Al-Bayan report Saturday echoed a claim carried Friday by the IS-affiliated Aamaq news agency.
The couple’s landlord in the town of Redlands opened their townhouse to media on Friday, leading to a flurry of reporters and camera crews surveying the scene.
President Barack Obama, who announced Thursday that the FBI had taken over the investigation, was not definite about the motive behind the attack.
The investigation into the California carnage has spread to Pakistan, where intelligence officials questioned members of Malik’s family, including her uncle, Javed Rabbani, the brother of her father, Gulzar.
Pakistani-born Malik came to the United States in 2014 on a fiancee visa.
Abuershaid says the family was very traditional. “I looked at Britney Spears on Facebook and I hate Britney Spears”, he said.
Relatives were at a loss to explain how the young couple with a baby girl could have donned black tactical gear and gunned down 14 people, in the country’s deadliest mass shooting since the Newtown school massacre in 2012.
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CNN, quoting officials, earlier said Farook had been in contact with known terror suspects overseas and had become radicalised after marrying Malik in Saudi Arabia a year ago, although an imam at a local mosque he attended said Farook showed no signs of that.
