Isis in US: Terror group claims San Bernardino shooters were supporters and praises them as 'martyrs'

Isis has claimed the married couple who massacred 14 people at a work party in California were its supporters, praising them as “martyrs”.

Syed Rizwan Farook walked into a conference centre and opened fire on his colleagues with his wife, Tashfeen Malik.

The FBI is investigating Wednesday’s massacre as a possible terror attack and reports emerged yesterday that Malik may have used a fake name to pledge allegiance to Isis on Facebook.

In Saturday’s daily bulletin on the group’s Al-Bayan radio station, the couple were described as “two followers of the Islamic State” and praised as “martyrs”.

The claim also appeared in extremists’ written news briefing, which called Farook and Malik “supporters”.

Charlie Winter, a counter-terrorism expert and senior research associate at Georgia State University, described the claim as “opportunistic”.

“It confirms IS inspiration not direction,” he wrote on Twitter. “If IS directed, there would've been fanfare from outset.”

Farook had worked for the San Bernardino county health department for five years and neither he nor his wife were known to security services.

The couple, who dropped off their baby daughter with Farook's mother shortly before the massacre, were dressed in military fatigues when they burst into the Inland Regional Centre wielding assault rifles and handguns.

They fled in a car but were chased and killed by police in a shoot-out.

Home-made bombs were found at the scene of the rampage attached to a remote-controlled car and 5,000 rounds of ammunition, 12 pipe bombs and equipment to make more were discovered at their home.

The couple’s family have said they are “in complete shock” and had no indication that they were radicalised or had stockpiled weapons, ammunition and pipe bombs found by investigators at their home.

FBI Director James Comey said there was no indication yet that the plot was directed by a foreign terror organisation but that the shooters may have been “inspired”.

“The investigation so far has developed indications of radicalisation by the killers and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organisations,” he said, adding that there was no evidence the shooters were part of a wider group.

If proven to be terrorism, the San Bernardino massacre would be the deadliest attack by Islamic extremists on American soil since 9/11.