Report: San Bernardino Shooter Had Contact With al-Qaida Group

San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook had contact with people from at least two militant organizations overseas, including the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front in Syria, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday, citing a federal law enforcement official.

 

The official described "some kind" of contact between Farook and people from the Nusra Front and the radical al Shabaab group in Somalia, the Times reported.

It is unclear what type of contact or with whom, the newspaper said.

The FBI on Friday said it is investigating the massacre of 14 people in California by Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, as an "act of terrorism."

Malik had pledged allegiance to ISIS in a Facebook post. The couple was killed in a shootout with police following the attack at a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center -- the nation's deadliest mass shooting in three years.

The post has since been removed, according to the New York Times. Malik reportedly posted the message on an account under a different name. Malik and Farook deleted their digital footprint a day before executing the deadly attacks.

The ongoing investigation has not yielded any evidence that the Islamic State directed the attack.

"At this point we believe they were more self-radicalized and inspired by the group than actually told to do the shooting," a federal law enforcement official told the New York Times.

The FBI shifted its examinations into terrorist recruitment tactics this year as the Islamic State has been targeting homegrown extremists in the U.S. to perform violence acts in the States instead of persuading them to travel to Syria to join ISIS, the New York Times reports.

The bureau uncovered evidence yesterday that Farook had contact with individuals already being investigated for possible terrorist activities.

Malik, 27, who was born in Pakistan, recently lived in Saudi Arabia. Farook, 28, is of Pakistani descent and was born in Illinois. He visited Saudi Arabia in July 2014 and brought Malik to the U.S. to wed after meeting online.