A new radio message released by ISIS on Saturday calls the California couple who gunned down 14 people at a holiday party “supporters” — but stops short of the terror group taking direct credit for the attack.
An announcer with the al-Bayan radio morning report recounts the slaughter in San Bernardino, and asks for “Allah to accept them (the shooters) among the martyrs,” according to a translation provided by global security firm and NBC News analyst Flashpoint Intelligence.
Farook, 27, was born in Chicago and married Malik two years ago after bringing her from Pakistan on a fiancée visa, officials said.
Just before the shooting, she pledged allegiance to the leader of ISIS on Facebook, law enforcement sources told NBC News.
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But while the FBI said Friday it is investigating the case as an act of terrorism, the agency hasn’t announced any direct ties between the couple and any sort of jihadi militant cell.
Lawyers for the family said Friday that there is no evidence to warrant a terrorism investigation, and don’t know why the couple had apparently become “radicalized.”
JIhadis on social media had actually shown an underwhelming response to the rampage in San Bernardino at first, according to Flashpoint Intelligence. But analysts say a sudden surge of chatter is only meant to capitalize on the FBI’s newly announced terrorism classification.
ISIS has taken credit for other larger-scale acts of terror, including most recently the coordinated carnage in Paris last month and the downing of a Russian commercial airline over Egypt in October.
