The night before a gunman killed five US service personnel in Tennessee, he sent a text message linking to a religious verse about “declaring war”, a report says.
Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez also spoke out against conflicts in the Middle East, according to the Reuters agency.
Police have said his motives are still being investigated.
Four US Marines were killed in the shooting. A sailor who was seriously injured died in hospital on Saturday.
Logistics specialist Randall Smith had been fighting for his life since the attack.
Abdulazeez was himself later killed in a shootout with police.
Reuters says it has seen a text sent the night before to a friend linking to a passage of Islamic text – Hadith 38 – containing the verse: “Whosoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, I will indeed declare war against him.”
The friend, who requested anonymity, said he thought nothing of the text at the time, but now wonders if it was a hint at the attack to come.
