ISIS Using Fake Passports to Send Wave of Terrorists to Europe
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The European Union's top intelligence officer is warning that ISIS has strategically decided to send its terrorists to Europe to stage attacks and distract from battlefield defeats in Syria.
Europol director Rob Wainwright told The Evening Standard that ISIS fighters are using fake Syrian passports to arrive unnoticed and that a small but growing number are identifying as refugees.
Wainright described a criminal underworld that is mass-producing false documents both for people-smuggling, as well as for terrorist groups.
The Standard noted that London's Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe recently explained the ISIS rationale for sending more fighters to Europe.
"If they are having less military success in Syria then the ability to carry out spectacular attacks in Europe is an alternative way to sustain morale among their fighters and demonstrate that IS is still being successful," Hogan-Howe said.
Wainright told The Standard that Europe should expect to face an "onerous security challenge" for years. He expects that as ISIS falls apart in Syria thousands of extremists will return.
Hogan-Howe also believes that ISIS fighters will return in large numbers.
"Over several years we'll have to deal with the re-integration of thousands of Europeans who'll come back having been exposed to a highly radicalized environment," he said.
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