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| San Bernardino shooter pledged allegiance to Isis, reports say | San Bernardino shooter pledged allegiance to Isis, reports say |
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| One of the two people accused of killing 14 at a holiday party in California apparently pledged allegiance to a leader of Islamic State militant group, according to numerous reports on Friday. | One of the two people accused of killing 14 at a holiday party in California apparently pledged allegiance to a leader of Islamic State militant group, according to numerous reports on Friday. |
| Related: San Bernardino shooting: suspect supported Isis, reports say – latest updates | |
| Reuters, the Associated Press, CNN and the New York Times all reported that Tashfeen Malik pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and the terror group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Facebook, with some saying she used an alias and then deleted the messages before the attack. The media organizations citied unnamed US law enforcement or government sources. | |
| CNN reported that one US official said Malik had pledged allegiance to Baghdadi on Wednesday, the day of the attack. | CNN reported that one US official said Malik had pledged allegiance to Baghdadi on Wednesday, the day of the attack. |
| Malik, 27, and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, were killed in a shootout with police hours after the Wednesday massacre at the Inland Regional Center social services agency in San Bernardino, about 60 miles (100km) east of Los Angeles. The attack was the deadliest mass shooting the United States has experienced in three years. | Malik, 27, and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, were killed in a shootout with police hours after the Wednesday massacre at the Inland Regional Center social services agency in San Bernardino, about 60 miles (100km) east of Los Angeles. The attack was the deadliest mass shooting the United States has experienced in three years. |
| US investigators are evaluating evidence that Malik, a Pakistani native who had been living in Saudi Arabia when she married Farook, had pledged allegiance to Baghdadi, two US officials told Reuters. They said the finding, if confirmed, could be a “game changer” in the investigation. | US investigators are evaluating evidence that Malik, a Pakistani native who had been living in Saudi Arabia when she married Farook, had pledged allegiance to Baghdadi, two US officials told Reuters. They said the finding, if confirmed, could be a “game changer” in the investigation. |
| The investigation has been focused on the motivation for the attack, with officials including Barack Obama and San Bernardino police chief Jarrod Burguan saying it may have been motivated by extremist ideology. | |
| Islamic State claimed responsibility for the 13 November coordinated shooting and bombing attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and injured hundreds. The group has called on its supporters around the world to strike targets in the west. | Islamic State claimed responsibility for the 13 November coordinated shooting and bombing attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and injured hundreds. The group has called on its supporters around the world to strike targets in the west. |
| Malik and Farook left behind a six-month-old daughter. Farook’s brother-in-law, Farhan Khan, told NBC News he had begun legal proceedings to adopt the girl and was “very upset and angry” at Farook. | Malik and Farook left behind a six-month-old daughter. Farook’s brother-in-law, Farhan Khan, told NBC News he had begun legal proceedings to adopt the girl and was “very upset and angry” at Farook. |
| “You left your six-month-old daughter,” Khan said. “In this life some people cannot have kids. God gave you a gift of a daughter. And you left that kid behind ... What did you achieve?” | “You left your six-month-old daughter,” Khan said. “In this life some people cannot have kids. God gave you a gift of a daughter. And you left that kid behind ... What did you achieve?” |
| Twenty-one people were wounded in the attack, the worst gun violence in the nation since the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. | Twenty-one people were wounded in the attack, the worst gun violence in the nation since the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. |
| Farook, a US citizen born in Illinois, was the son of Pakistani immigrants, said Hussam Ayloush, head of the Los Angeles area chapter of the Muslim advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations. | Farook, a US citizen born in Illinois, was the son of Pakistani immigrants, said Hussam Ayloush, head of the Los Angeles area chapter of the Muslim advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations. |
| Christian Nwadike, who worked with Farook for five years, told CBS that his co-worker had been different since he returned from Saudi Arabia. “I think he married a terrorist,” Nwadike said. | |
| Investigators are reviewing the couples’ computers and cellphones to see if they had browsed jihadist websites or had contact with militant groups, according to officials in Washington familiar with the investigation. | Investigators are reviewing the couples’ computers and cellphones to see if they had browsed jihadist websites or had contact with militant groups, according to officials in Washington familiar with the investigation. |
| Police said the couple had two assault-style rifles, two semi-automatic handguns and 1,600 rounds of ammunition in their vehicle, with 12 pipe bombs found in their home. | Police said the couple had two assault-style rifles, two semi-automatic handguns and 1,600 rounds of ammunition in their vehicle, with 12 pipe bombs found in their home. |
| On Friday a lawyer for the couple’s family said that many aspects of the tragic events “do not add up”. | |
| Officials have reported that the couple wiped material from their electronic devices and smashed computer parts at least a day before Wednesday’s mass shooting. | |
| “There are a lot of disconnects and there are a lot of unknowns and there are a lot of things that quite frankly don’t add up, or seem implausible,” attorney David Chelsey told CNN on Friday morning. | |
| In contrast to various accounts that Farook and Malik were quiet and unassuming, officials revealed that they believe they were armed with powerful, combat-style rifles, dressed in assault gear, and their home was a stockpile of ammunition and homemade pipe bombs. | |
| Chelsey indicated that such details appeared out of character with the couple many people were familiar with, and there had been no signs that they were harboring an arsenal of weaponry or planning an attack. | |
| “It doesn’t make sense. No one has ever seen Syed with any of the things – with some of the things found on the scene, they’ve never seen them with him. The pipe bombs, for example. No one had ever seen him use or have anything like that,” he said. | |
| The couple were shot dead on Wednesday evening after they fled law enforcement, with the rented black SUV they had driven to the scene of the shooting and then were later pursued in by armed officials riddled with police bullets. | |
| But Chelsey insisted: “It just doesn’t make sense, for these two to be able to act like some kind of Bonnie and Clyde or something.” | |
| He said that the couple would have lacked know-how around such powerful weapons and Malik was too slight to be able to operate a semi-automatic assault rifle of the kind officials say was used in the shooting, together with the weight of a protective vest and ammunition. | |
| “It doesn’t add up – the military skills to carry out something like this, really, frankly. It doesn’t make sense. If somebody had military training or something, yes, but here was none of that and this person was not aggressive,” he said, referring to Farook. | |
| He pointed out that Malik herself was lightweight and claimed she did not take part in the killing. | |
| “She was never involved in shooting. She’s probably 90lbs, so it’s unlikely she could even carry a weapon or wear some sort of a vest or do any of this,” Chelsey said. | |
| Chelsey said that he and family members have already talked to the authorities. | |
| “We sat with the FBI for three hours and they tried to identify some of the characteristics or some affiliations that he [Farook] might have had, or could have led to him acting this way and they couldn’t find anything. They were totally stumped, totally frustrated,” he said. | |
| Publicly, the FBI continues to reserve judgement. | |
| David Bowdich, the assistant director at the FBI’s Los Angeles office, which is leading the investigation, said on Thursday: “We don’t know the motive. We cannot rule anything out at this point. We don’t know if this was the intended target or there was something that triggered him to do this immediately.” | |
| He continued: “It would be irresponsible and premature for me to call this terrorism. The FBI defines terrorism very specifically and that is the big question for us: What is the motivation for this?” | |
| Reports have claimed investigators retrieved and have been scrutinizing electronic devices belonging to Farook and Malik and found that at least a day before the attacks he began deleting data, suggesting a possible level of planning of the attack. | |
| Mobile phones, computer hard drives, and “virtually anything with digital memory” belonging to the couple had been smashed when investigators found them, ABC reported. | |
| FBI analysts will now attempt to repair the equipment and harvest any material from them, if possible. | |
| Details also began to emerge of the attack itself. Patrick Baccari was drying his hands with paper towel in a bathroom when the dispenser seemed to explode and he was peppered with shrapnel. | |
| The attackers had entered the building and bullets were flying through the walls as he heard shots outside the door and told others in the men’s room to get down and brace against the door with their feet, he told ABC. | |
| Baccari shared an office cubicle with Syed Farook and said that although the man was reserved, he considered him a friend. | |
| But he noticed when staff grouped for a photo at the gathering on Wednesday that Farook, who had been there earlier, was absent. “He wasn’t there for the Christmas photo,” he said. | |
| Baccari then described how bullets “came bursting through the towel dispenser”. | |
| “I looked in the mirror and I could see blood here, here and here,” he said, indicated areas on his face and neck. | |
| “I told the other people in the rest room – we are under attack,” he said. | |
| Reuters contributed to this report. |