Obama will provide an update on the San Bernardino attack that killed 14 and wounded 21 and will also discuss the broader threat of terrorism.
Advertisement
Islamic State has said a married couple who killed 14 people in California in an attack the FBI is investigating as an “act of terrorism” were followers of its militant group.
The speech will take place at 8pm ET., and comes four days after American born Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife laid siege to a holiday party for local government workers in San Bernardino, California, killing almost 20 people and wounding more than a dozen. “It’s another tragic reminder that here in America it’s way too easy for unsafe people to get their hands on a gun”.
There is no indication that the two suspects who killed 14 people in California are part of a larger terrorist group, the White House said today as US President Barack Obama reviewed the information on the California mass shooting with his national security team.
“There was a pledge of allegiance”, David Bowdich, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Los Angeles office, told a news conference about a reported loyalty pledge posted on Facebook by Malik on the day of the attack.
Clear evidence of an Islamic State-inspired attack on American soil would raise the stakes considerably in a debate that has been largely confined to actions on other continents and would further complicate the administration’s efforts to allow thousands of Syrian refugees into the United States. “And we will not be terrorised”.
In its English-language radio broadcast Saturday, IS stopped short of explicitly claiming the attack but referred to the assailants as soldiers of the Khilafah (caliphate) who were “killed in the path of Allah”.
On Thursday, as investigators were searching for a motive, Obama said at the White House that the shootings could have been terrorist-related or workplace-related.
Several Republican presidential candidates had quickly labeled the shootings an act of terrorism and faulted Obama for not saying so immediately. “And if so, it would underscore a threat we’ve been focused on for years – the danger of people succumbing to violent extremist ideologies”. Batool said the two families were not on speaking terms. Attorney Mohammad Abuershaid said few people came in contact with Malik, who wore the full-face veil and was soft-spoken and shy.
Advertisement
As the terrorism-inducing reach of the Islamic State has grown – first confined to the battlefields of Iraq and Syria, then extending to other Middle Eastern and North African countries, then to Europe – President Obama has cautioned Americans against overreacting with fear.
