FBI: San Bernardino shooters did not support ISIL on social media

The married couple suspected in the massacre of 14 people in San Bernardino, California, on Dec. 2 did not express support for "jihad and martyrdom" on social media — as previously reported — FBI Director James Comey said on Wednesday.

There was also no evidence that the two — Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 29 — were part of an organized cell or had any contact with overseas armed groups, Comey added.

The couple did express support for a violent ideology in their private communications, he said.

Earlier, Malik was wrongly said to have pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), on a social media account under a different name.

A Facebook official said Malik praised ISIL in a post at about the moment the couple were said to have stormed a social services center where Farook's co-workers at the San Bernardino County Public Health Department were gathered for a holiday party.

Farook and Malik reportedly opened fire on the party with automatic weapons, killing 14 people and wounding 21 others. The two were later killed in a shootout with police.

ISIL praised the attack, which it said was carried out by its followers, but did not claim responsibility for it.

In the wake of the attack, there was widespread speculation about the couple’s motives, with many wondering whether the incident was sparked by a workplace grievance or a violent ideology.

The San Bernardino attack was the worst incident of gun violence in the U.S. since the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit San Bernardino, where he will meet with the families of victims privately, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday during a press briefing.

Al Jazeera and Reuters