Husband-wife terrorists Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik are “soldiers” of ISIS, the jihadist group declared.
ISIS extremists made the declaration on their official radio station Saturday, a day after it was revealed that the wife, Malik, had pledged her allegiance to the terror group.
“We pray to God to accept them as martyrs,” ISIS said in a broadcast on al-Bayan Radio, stopping short of claiming responsibility for the attack.
Officials revealed Friday that Malik posted a “bayat,” or pledge of allegiance, to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi just before the attack. No actual back-and-forth communication between the jihadist group and the hate-filled couple has been disclosed.
Malik’s post, since being removed by Facebook, went up at 11 a.m. Wednesday, about the time the duo opened fire at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Calif., killing 14.
The hubby, Farook, had contact with people from at least two jihadist groups overseas, according to a report.
Farook communicated with the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front in Syria and with al-Shabaab in Somalia, sources said, confirming accounts in the LA Times.
Federal investigators are probing Farook’s phone and social-media activity for terrorism-related communications and have found contacts with at least one person under investigation for terrorism connections, CNN reported. “These appear to be soft connections,” meaning infrequent contacts, an official told CNN.
Farook’s last terrorism-related communication was months ago, the network reported.
“We don’t know yet what they mean,” an official told CNN.
The disclosures offered deepening proof that Farook, 28, and his wife and partner in terror, Tashfeen Malik, 29, were at least inspired by foreign militant groups.
Nerves remained jittery in the Redlands, Calif., neighborhood where the couple lived with their 6-month-old daughter.
On Friday night, bomb technicians were deployed to inspect a package that was delivered by UPS to the couple’s town house. On Saturday, local police tweeted that the box turned out to be a delivery of clothes from Sears for Farook’s mother.
Neighbors displayed American flags in the fronts of their houses, and passersby waved still more flags outside their car windows as they drove by the couple’s boarded-up home.