Business | Thu Dec 10, 2015 2:30pm EST

Islamic extremists ignored contact attempts by wife in California shooting: sources

WASHINGTON | BY MARK HOSENBALL

Islamic militant groups ignored contact attempts from Pakistan-born Tashfeen Malik in the months before she and her husband killed 14 people at a California holiday party probably because they feared getting caught in a U.S. law enforcement sting, U.S. government sources said on Thursday.

The number of organizations Malik, 29, tried to contact and how she tried to contact them were unclear, but the groups almost certainly included al Qaeda’s Syria-based official affiliate, the Nusrah Front, the sources said.

One source said the government currently has little, if any, evidence that Malik or her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, had any direct contact with Islamic State, which has captured control of large parts of Syria and Iraq. Islamic State said last week the couple were among its followers.

The militant groups likely ignored Malik's approaches because they have become extremely wary of responding to outsiders they do not know or who have not been introduced to them, the sources said.

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