PM offers ‘deepest condolences’ to San Bernardino victims’ families

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday night extended his condolences to the families of the victims of the San Bernardino shooting attack on Wednesday.

“The people of Israel stand with the American people as they mourn those murdered Wednesday in San Bernardino. We send our deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wish the wounded a speedy recovery,” the prime minister said in a statement.

Fourteen people were killed and 21 wounded when two assailants opened fire inside the Inland Regional Center, police said Thursday, revising the toll of injured up from 17.

The attack took place inside a packed conference room rented out for a holiday event by the center, which provides services for people with disabilities.

Police said Thursday that coroners were still working to identify the victims, and that they would begin releasing their names as available.

A married couple carried out the attack — setting the shooting apart from other mass shootings in the United States. The involvement of a woman is rare.

They have been identified as Syed Farook, a 28-year-old US citizen who worked for the local county in environmental matters, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, a Pakistani national who was in the United States on a K1 (fiancee) visa.

They were killed in a shootout with police hours after the attack.

Farook and Malik had a six-month-old baby that they left with Farook’s mother before the shooting, according to a relative.

San Bernardino police chief Jarrod Burguan told reporters the slain couple were armed with assault rifles and handguns — all legally purchased. They fired dozens of rounds at the Inland Regional Center, before fleeing in a black SUV.

Explosives rigged to a remote-controlled car were also found at the scene of the carnage, but the device failed to go off, he said.

He said 1,600 rounds of ammunition were found on the couple, who were wearing black tactical gear, and in their car following the police shootout in which they died.

About 5,000 additional rounds, 12 pipe bomb-type explosive devices and bomb-making material were found at the home the couple shared.

Authorities say it is still too soon to say what prompted their actions.

“We cannot rule anything out at this point,” David Bowdich, the FBI assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office, said. “It would be irresponsible of me to call this terrorism.”

On Wednesday, Burguan said: “Obviously at minimum we have a domestic terrorist type situation that occurred here.”

Burguan said Farook attended the holiday party organized by the county health department at the Inland Regional Center but left after an apparent dispute, only to return a short time later with Malik, both heavily armed.

“Based upon how they were equipped, there had to be some degree of planning that went into this,” he said. “I don’t think they just ran home and put on these tactical clothes, grabbed guns and came back on a spur-of-the-moment thing.”