'San Bernardino shooter swore allegiance to IS leader on Facebook'

Tashfeen Malik, who killed 14 people with her husband, made the post in the course of Wednesday’s attack, official tells CNN

The woman who with her husband shot dead 14 people in an attack on a California center for the disabled pledged allegiance to Islamic State’s leader on Facebook during the attack, CNN reported Friday, quoting US officials familiar with the investigation into the shooting.

Tashfeen Malik, 27, and her spouse Syed Farook, a 28-year-old county restaurant inspector, slaughtered the 14 and seriously wounded 21 others in a precision attack Wednesday at the social service center in San Bernardino before they were gunned down in an SUV a few miles away in a shootout with police.

According to CNN, investigators believe that as the attack was happening, Malik went on Facebook to make her pledge to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

One of the officials said Malik’s post was made on an account with a different name. CNN said the officials gave no explanation as to why they believe Malik made the post.

“At this point we believe they were more self-radicalized and inspired by the group than actually told to do the shooting,” an official told the New York Times, which also reported that Malik had pledged allegiance to IS in a Facebook posting but that there was no evidence the group directed the woman.

FBI agents have been combing through cellphones and a computer hard drive left behind by the couple to try to establish a motive for the killings.

This undated photo provided by the California Department of Motor Vehicles shows Syed Rizwan Farook who has been named as the suspect in the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings. (California Department of Motor Vehicles via AP)

CNN, quoting officials, earlier said Farook had been in contact with known terror suspects overseas and had become radicalized after marrying Malik in Saudi Arabia last year, although an imam at a local mosque he attended said Farook showed no signs of that.

The Times reported that the FBI had evidence Farook had communicated with extremists domestically and abroad a few years ago.

The couple had more than 1,600 bullets when they were killed by authorities, and that the shooters had more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition at their home, as well as 12 pipe bombs and tools that could be used to make explosive devices.

The FBI was investigating the shootings as a potential act of terrorism but had reached no firm conclusions, a US official briefed on the probe said on condition of anonymity Thursday.

The attack came as a shock to leaders in the Muslim community, and many wondered what could have motivated it.

“We don’t know the motives. Is it work, rage-related? Is it mental illness? Is it extreme ideology? At this point, it’s really unknown to us,” said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, based on conversations with Farook’s brother-in-law.