A new report on Friday suggests that Enrique Marquez, the neighbor and relative-through-marriage who bought the long rifles used by terrorists Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik in their attack on the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino last week, also helped them build pipe bombs.
CNN reports that Marquez told investigators that he had joined Farook in building potentially deadly bombs as a “hobby,” though not the bombs used in the attack.
During the attack, Farook and Malik left pipe bombs at the scene of the shooting where they killed 14 and injured 21, hoping to kill medical personnel and law enforcement when they arrived on the scene. The bombs, which were to have been operated by remote control, failed to detonate. During their flight from police, Farook and Malik also tossed homemade bombs from the SUV in which they were fleeing from police–which also failed to explode.
After the FBI raided Farook and Malik’s apartment, they found 19 pipe bombs, evidently stockpiled for future attacks. Catherine Herridge of Fox News reported last week that the bombs found were of a design popularized by Al Qaeda through its Inspire magazine, and lately adopted by followers of the so-called Islamic State.
Marquez, a convert to Islam, is thought to have plotted a previous terror attack with Farook that the two abandoned in 2012.
Photo: file
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