Pro-IS News Agency Says ‘IS Sympathizers’ Staged California Attack
Agencies/04.12.15
Sympathizers of the Islamic State group carried out the mass shooting this week in California that killed 14 people and wounded 21, according to the pro-IS Arabic-language news agency Aamaq. “Two sympathizers of the Islamic State attacked a center in San Bernardino, California, opening fire inside the location, killing 14 people and wounding 21,” a statement from the agency said. Aamaq is active in IS-run territories but is not considered to be the jihadist group’s mouthpiece and does not claim attacks on its behalf. “This operation comes after the bloody Paris attacks, which were carried out by fighters from the state… which caused the killing of dozens, and after a martyrdom-seeking operation on presidential security in the center of the Tunisian capital,” it said. Aamaq did not say what the motive was. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation said Friday the shooting is now being investigated as an “act of terrorism.””We have uncovered evidence that has led us to learn of extensive planning,”
David Bowdich, the assistant director in charge of the FBI field office in Los Angeles, told reporters. Later on Friday, FBI Director James Comey said there are no signs that the couple were part of a larger group. “So far we have no indication that these killers are part of an organized larger group or part of a cell. There’s no indication that they are part of a network,” Comey said. Earlier in the day, U.S. media reports said the female assailant in the shooting had pledged allegiance to the head of the Islamic State group on Facebook.
“At this point we believe they were more self-radicalized and inspired by the group than actually told to do the shooting,” one official was quoted as saying by the New York Times. One U.S. official familiar with the investigation said the woman, Tashfeen Malik, had posted her allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Facebook under an account with a different name during the attack, CNN reported. MSNBC quoted another official saying the message was posted “just before the attack.”The post has since been deleted from Facebook, the Times said.
‘Mind-boggling’
Farook, 28, and Malik, 27, were killed Wednesday in a wild firefight with police hours after the attack — and relatives were at a loss to explain how the couple who had a baby girl and seemed to be living the “American dream” could have committed mass murder. “I can never imagine my brother or my sister-in-law doing something like this. Especially because they were happily married, they had a beautiful six-month-old daughter,” Farook’s sister Saira Khan told CBS News. “It’s just mind-boggling why they would do something like this.”One of Farook’s colleagues said he was convinced Malik, who is Pakistani, had radicalized her husband after they met online and married in Saudi Arabia last year. “I think he married a terrorist,” Christian Nwadike told CBS News. “He was set up through that marriage.” There were reports that Farook may have snapped at his office party following a religious discussion that got out of hand. One witness said he suddenly stormed out of the event, leaving his jacket on his seat, and returned a short while later armed to the teeth and dressed in black military-style gear and a mask, accompanied by his wife. An explosive device was later found at the scene of the shooting, but failed to go off.
Combing through evidence
The landlord of the couple’s rented townhouse on Friday opened their home up to reporters and the public who flooded in taking pictures and videos in a surreal scene. A scrum of journalists flooded into the apartment, filming and snapping pictures of the family’s possessions. Children’s toys could be seen inside the home along with passports, pictures and letters scattered on one bed. It was not immediately clear if the apartment was still considered an active crime scene. Investigators had found thousands of rounds of ammunition at the home, as well as a bomb-making laboratory and 12 pipe bombs. “There was obviously a mission here,” said David Bowdich, the assistant FBI director in charge of the Los Angeles office. “We don’t know if this was the intended target or if there was something that triggered him to do this immediately.”
‘Not afraid’
One lawyer for the couple’s family said links between Farook and potential terror suspects were “tenuous” at best. “We’ve met with the FBI and, you know, someone has alluded to the fact that they found something on his computer,” one lawyer, David Chesley, told CNN. “He may have talked to somebody who talked to — or spoken with somebody on the computer who viewed something about ISIS, but it’s like, it’s so tenuous, there’s nothing really there.” Authorities identified the couple’s victims as six women and eight men ranging in age from 26 to 60. All but two were county employees and colleagues of Farook. Up to 3,000 people attended a vigil Thursday evening in honor of the victims, lighting candles and listening to memorial speeches.”This is a tragedy but we must show that we are not afraid,” said Dorothy Andrews, 74, who was among those who turned out at the city’s San Manuel Stadium.
Reports: California Female Shooter Pledged Allegiance to IS during Attack
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/04 December/15/Investigators believe the female shooter in California, Tashfeen Malik, posted on Facebook during the deadly attack, pledging allegiance to Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, U.S. media reported Friday. One U.S. official familiar with the investigation said Malik had posted on Facebook under an account with a different name. The officials did not explain how they knew Malik was responsible for the post, CNN reported. Malik and her American husband, Syed Farook, burst into a year-end party in San Bernardino, California Wednesday and opened fire on a roomful of Farook’s co-workers, killing 14 and wounding 21. “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. 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.
