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 The group's declaration, in an online radio broadcast comes three
days after U.S.-born Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his spouse,
Tashfeen Malik, 29, a native of Pakistan, carried out the attack on
a holiday party for civil servants in San Bernardino, about 60 miles
(100 km) east of Los Angeles.
The two died hours later in a shootout with police.
U.S. government sources have said Malik and her husband may have
been inspired by Islamic State, but there was no evidence the attack
was directed by the militant group or that the organization even
knew who they were. The party the couple attacked was for workers in
the same local government agency that employed Farook.
If Wednesday's mass shooting proves to have been the work of people
inspired by Islamist militants, as investigators now suspect, it
would mark the deadliest such attack in the United States since
Sept. 11, 2001.
 "Two followers of Islamic State attacked several days ago a center
in San Bernadino in California," the group's daily online radio
broadcast al-Bayan said on Saturday.
The broadcast came a day after Facebook confirmed that comments
praising Islamic State were posted around the time of the mass
shooting to an account on the social media website established by
Malik under an alias.
However, it was uncertain whether the comments were posted by Malik
herself or someone with access to her page.
"I know it was in a general timeline where that post was made, and
yes, there was a pledge of allegiance," David Bowdich, assistant
director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Los Angeles
office, told a news conference about a reported loyalty pledge
posted on Facebook by Malik on the day of the attack.
A Facebook Inc spokesman said the profile in question was removed by
the company on Thursday for violating its community standards
barring promotion or praise for "acts of terror." He declined to
elaborate on the material.
CNN and other news media outlets reported the Facebook posts on
Malik's page included a pledge of allegiance to Islamic State leader
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
FBI officials said mounting signs of advanced preparations, the
large cache of armaments amassed by the couple and evidence that
they "attempted to destroy their digital fingerprints" helped tip
the balance of the investigation.
 "Based on the information and the facts as we know them, we are now
investigating these horrific acts as an act of terrorism," Bowdich
told reporters.
He said the FBI hoped examination of data retrieved from two smashed
cellphones and other electronic devices seized in the investigation
would lead to a motive for the attack.
The couple had two assault-style rifles, two semi-automatic
handguns, 6,100 rounds of ammunition and 12 pipe bombs in their home
or with them when they were killed, officials said. And Bowdich said
they may have been planning an additional attack.
Speaking to reporters separately in Washington on Friday, FBI
Director James Comey said the investigation pointed to
"radicalization of the killers and of potential inspiration by
foreign terrorist organizations."
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But no evidence has been uncovered yet suggesting the killers were
"part of an organized larger group, or form part of a cell," Comey
said. "There is no indication that they are part of a network."
Bowdich said neither Farook nor Malik had been under investigation
by the FBI or other law enforcement agency prior to Wednesday.
And none of the contacts federal agents have since discovered
between the couple and the subjects of other FBI inquiries "were of
such a significance that it raised these killers up onto our radar
screen," Comey said.
Citing an unnamed federal law enforcement official, the Los Angeles
Times reported late on Friday that Farook had "some kind" of contact
with people from the Nusra Front and the radical Shabab group in
Somalia. But the nature of that contact and with whom was unclear,
the Times said.
OBAMA TOUTS NATIONAL RESILIENCE
President Barack Obama vowed on Saturday in his weekly radio address
that federal investigators would find out what motivated the married
couple to attack.
"We are strong. And we are resilient. And we will not be
terrorized," Obama said.
Farook family attorneys, holding a news conference in Los Angeles on
Friday, denied there was any evidence that either the husband or
wife harbored extremist views.
She spoke broken English and her primary language was Urdu, he said,
adding, "She was very conservative." They said Farook, too, largely
kept to himself, had few friends and said co-workers sometimes made
fun of his beard.
Investigators are looking into a report that Farook had an argument
with a co-worker who denounced the "inherent dangers of Islam" prior
to the shooting, a U.S. government source said.
Pakistani intelligence officials have contacted Malik's family in
her homeland as part of the investigation, a family member said.
Malik's uncle, Javed Rabbani, said in an interview with Reuters that
the family was "in shock." He also said his brother, Malik's father,
had become considerably more conservative since moving with his
family to Saudi Arabia a quarter century ago.
(Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy in Cairo and Alex Dobuzinskis in
Los Angeles, Editing by Tom Heneghan)
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