The couple stormed a gathering of his work colleagues in San Bernardino, California, on Wednesday, opening fire with assault-style rifles and killing 14 people.
- From AP reporters Tami Abdollah in Washington and Brian Skoloff in Riverside, California.
Farook had maintained a Facebook page that was deleted before the shooting, according to Rita Katz, executive director of the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks online communications of extremists.
The FBI said Friday it is officially investigating the mass shooting in California as an act of terrorism, while a US law enforcement official said the woman who carried out the attack with her husband had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and its leader on Facebook.
(AP Photo/Chris Carlson). Members of the media crowd into the living room of an apartment in Redlands, Calif., shared by San Bernardino shooting rampage suspects Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, Friday, Dec. 4, 2015, after the building landlor... She started dressing more conservatively, wearing a scarf that covered almost all of her face, and became more devout in her Muslim faith, according to some who knew her in Pakistan.
Malik posted a message on Facebook pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the terrorist group Islamic State, Mr. Comey said.
Relatives had no idea that the couple held radical views, according to family lawyers.
Malik moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, when she was between 18 or 20, an attorney for Farook's family said.
Farook was a county health worker born in Chicago, while Malik had originally entered the USA on a visa.
The couple had a 6-month-old daughter, whom they left with a grandmother the day of the shooting. She returned to Multan, Pakistan, about 100 miles from her ancestral village, in 2007, pursuing a pharmacy degree at Bahauddin Zakariya University. It was not immediately clear whether she graduated. An identity card said she was 29 years old at the time of the shootings.
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Supporting that analysis, an English radio broadcast by IS praised them as "soldiers of the caliphate" and martyrs, but did not say they were members of the group. The agency said it was treating the attack as an "act of terrorism". "It's not how I want San Bernardino remembered". "She was probably not someone who stood out, academically or otherwise", he said.
Another friend, Rashid Thompson, said Farook had become more distant recently.
"These appear to be soft connections", an official said, meaning they were not frequent contacts.
Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner for the White House, on Sunday repeated his claim that in San Bernardino, as in Paris last month, the victims were "like sitting ducks" because they were unarmed. "That's a very real challenge and it's one that preceded ISIL and I presume one that will endure beyond ISIL and its defeat", she said on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS". Did they have direct ties with the Islamic State or other worldwide terrorists, acting as part of an elaborate conspiracy, or were they a freelance operation drawing only inspiration from overseas?
The attorneys said the family was shocked by the attack and mourns for the victims.
"We hope that will take us to their motivation", he said.
An Islamic State-affiliated news service called Malik and Farook "supporters" of their Islamist cause but stopped short of claiming responsibility for the attack.
The U.S. officials and Facebook figure who discussed the couple's online activity spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the matter publicly.
Until Friday, federal and local law enforcement officials said terrorism was a possibility but that the violence could have stemmed from a workplace grudge.
US officials have acknowledged that they had no information about the couple before the killing other than a routine request by Farook to grant Malik a visa so she could join him in the United States so they could marry. "And if so, it would underscore a threat we've been focused on for years - the danger of people succumbing to violent extremist ideologies". Though most are men, "women are taking an increasingly prominent role in the jihadist world", the report said. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Zarar Khan in Islamabad, Pakistan; Asim Tanveer in Karor Lal Esan, Pakistan; Aya Batrawy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and Amy Taxin in San Bernardino.
