ISIS 'spreading like cancer' among refugees with terrorists among 'daily flow' arriving in EU, says NATO chief

Jihadis are using Europe's refugee crisis to 'mask' their activies, says Philip Breedlove.

Jihadis, criminals and foreign fighters are using the European refugee crisis to 'mask' their activies, including plotting terror attacks, US Air Force General Philip Breedlove (inset) said

 SUPPORT for ISIS is "spreading like a cancer" among refugees, with terrorists part of the "daily flow" of arrivals, the top NATO commander in Europe has revealed. Jihadis, criminals and foreign fighters are using the European refugee crisis to "mask" their activies, including plotting terror attacks, US Air Force General Philip Breedlove said.

The number of arrivals in the first two months of 2016 is more than 11 times as many as the same period last year

 Speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Breedlove said ISIS is one of the groups "taking advantage" of the chaos to threaten European nations and the US.

In response to a question about whether ISIS will continue to infiltrate refugee flows, Breedlove said, "I think that they are doing that today." Breedlove also said Russia's actions in Syria have "wildly exacerbated the problem".

Breedlove said that in the wake of Syria's civil war and the rise of ISIS, the people fleeing Syria and Iraq were what Breedlove described as "legitimate" refugees. They were escaping civil war, terrorism and unresponsive governments. But that's changed in recent months, he said.

Their airstrikes have done little to counter ISIS due to their focus on bolstering Syrian President Bashar Assad, he added. Russia and Assad are using migration as a weapon to overwhelm European support structures and break European resolve, Breedlove went on to say.


Breedlove said that in the wake of Syria's civil war and the rise of ISIS, the people fleeing Syria and Iraq were what Breedlove described as "legitimate" refugees. They were escaping civil war, terrorism and unresponsive governments.

But that's changed in recent months, he said. The International Organization for Migration said Tuesday that almost 130,000 migrants  more than 2,000 each day have reached Europe by sea since the beginning of this year and 418 have died trying.

The number of arrivals in the first two months of 2016 is more than 11 times as many as the same period last year. The organization estimated that last year's total of more than 1 million seaborne migrant arrivals likely will be surpassed in 2016, possibly before the end of the summer.