San Bernardino, United States: The husband and wife behind the shooting in California that left 14 people dead were radicalized for "quite some time" and both went for target practice before the massacre, authorities said Monday.
The update from the FBI on the terror probe into the December 2 rampage in San Bernardino came after President Barack Obama vowed to destroy the Islamic State group and hunt down its followers, in an address to a jittery nation.
The self-proclaimed Islamic State has praised the California attackers -- Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik -- as "soldiers" of its self-proclaimed caliphate but did not say they were members of the group.
"As the investigation has progressed, we have learned and believe that both subjects were radicalized and have been for quite some time," David Bowdich, the FBI's assistant director in Los Angeles, told reporters on Monday.
"The question for us is how and by whom and where were they radicalized?" he said.
"Maybe there's not a by whom. Often times it's on the Internet."
He said the couple, killed in a shootout with police following the gun attack on a year-end office party, went for target practice in ranges around the Los Angeles area, including in the days before the tragedy.
On Sunday, Obama said the attack was an "act of terrorism," and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating it as such.
Authorities have, however, said there is no indication the couple was part of an organized larger group or cell.
In addition to two rifles and two handguns used in the attack at the party organized by Farook's employer -- the San Bernardino County health department -- investigators found an impressive arsenal at their home.
"The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it. We will destroy (IS) and any other organization that tries to harm us," Obama said Sunday, in only his third address from the Oval Office since taking office in 2009.
AFP
