IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

ISIS Calls San Bernardino Shooters 'Martyrs' in Message

A radio morning report recounts the slaughter in San Bernardino, and asks for "Allah to accept them (the shooters) among the martyrs."
Get more newsLiveon

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.

Related: The Mystery of San Bernardino Shooter Tashfeen Malik

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.

Syed Farook, 27, was born in Chicago and married Tashfeen 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.

Image: Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik
Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik.

Related: San Bernardino Shooter Was 'Bad Person,' Not Radical: Brother-in-Law

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 airliner over Egypt in October.