Wife in San Bernardino attack pledged allegiance to Islamic State

Days after the San Bernardino mass shooting on Wednesday the Islamic State terror group, commonly known as ISIS, released a statement praising the shooters for committing an egregious act of terrorism on US soil.

The radio report did not refer to the couple as actual members of the Islamic State group. The terrorist group tends to claim a wide range of attacks often with questionable involvement.

The FBI has said it’s investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism.

An anonymous United States official said Malik used a Facebook alias to pledge her allegiance to Isis and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi just before the shootings.

Investigators are still looking into the circumstances of how the couple met and what led them to carry out the attack.

San Bernardino investigators were hoping that the computer drives and cell phones seized from the suspects’ house could tell them whether the attackers were terrorists and were aiming for high targets in their sights.

She then married 28-year-old Syed Farook, who was born in Chicago to Pakistani parents, on August 16, 2014.

Malik was born in Pakistan but moved to Saudi Arabia when she was four years old. Both later died in a gun battle with law enforcement after they tried to flee in a black SUV.

One of the officials said Malik’s Facebook post was made under a different name and had since been removed, apparently by Malik herself, but Federal Bureau of Investigation technicians were able to recover it.

Farook and Malik “kept to themselves” in California, Abuershaid said.

Estranged relatives of Malik say she and her father seemed to have abandoned the family’s moderate Islam and become more radicalized during time they spent in Saudi Arabia.

The couple was killed by police after a shootout near their Redlands, Calif. home.

It is unknown where, if anywhere, the couple would have targeted, but the sheer volume of firearms, ammunition, and explosives stockpiled by the couple suggest that they had plans for other attacks. According to two attorneys representing the Farook family, Malik was a simple housewife who was soft spoken, very private, conservative and isolated.

“The most evidence they have so far is that somebody looked at something on Facebook”, the lawyer said. “It’s harder for us to understand, especially knowing that he was our brother and he was so happy with her”, Khan said.

When asked to explain possible motivations for the attack, Chesley said at a news conference Friday that co-workers made fun of Farook for his beard and said he was isolated with few friends.