FBI probes massacre as terrorism; wife pledged allegiance to ISIS

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The FBI said that agents are officially investigating the San Bernardino massacre as an act of terrorism. The mysterious Pakistani woman who with her husband gunned down 14 Wednesday at a holiday party reportedly pledged her allegiance to ISIS before the massacre, according to a government source, in what appears to be concrete evidence that the rampage was at least inspired, if not directed, by the terrorist group.

Tashfeen Malik is believed to have posted her pledge to ISIS leader and self-proclaimed "caliph" Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on or around the time of the attack, in which she and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, stormed a San Bernardino party for his co-workers before escaping. The pair died hours later in a shootout with police, the 29-year-old Pakistani woman remains a name without a face.

The pledge, reported by both the Associated Press and Reuters, citing federal sources, provided one of the first clues to Malik’s identity and motivation. The AP also cited a source at Facebook. The aura of mystery surrounding Malik has given rise to suspicions she may have been the radicalizing force who turned her new husband from an aloof county restaurant inspector into her cohort in carnage, an Islamist fanatic capable of murdering co-workers who had embraced him for years.

"Tashfeen remains the biggest mystery," said a leader of the area’s Pakistani-American Muslim community. "She's the one no one knows anything about and has little to no presence on the Internet or having interacted with others in the Muslim community."

The FBI said it had not uncovered any further credible plots connected to this attack. Federal, state, county, and local partners were sharing information and would investigate any threats or leads, according to the county sheriff. The FBI said that the public should go about their lives. Officials said that anyone should report suspicious activity to authorities.

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