Escaped Prisoner Accuses ISIS of Stealing Blood, Organs from Tortured Captives

A former prisoner of the Islamic State says in a interview that he personally witnessed ISIS jihadists carving organs and stealing blood from prisoners in order to help wounded jihadis survive.

ISIS is one of the most grotesque and horrifying menaces in human history, but a bit of modest skepticism may be in order for some of the stories told about it. With that disclaimer out of the way, it should be noted that escaped Islamic State prisoner Abo Rida is not the first to level gruesome charges of organ theft and vivisection at the terror state. Rida reports seeing blood drained from prisoners, organs cut from their bodies, and even corneas sliced from their eyes by ISIS “surgeons” for the benefit of jihadis, who were said to be “more deserving” of the harvested tissue.

An interview posted at Catholic Online describes Rida as a prisoner who escaped from the clutches of the Islamic State after his prison was damaged in a counter-terrorism raid. Rida was one of four escapees to survive a hail of bullets from their former captors.

According to Rida, those held in his improvised prison were tortured daily, for crimes such as “insulting Allah,” while healthy prisoners were kept in good shape to be used as blood bags for injured ISIS fighters.

“They removed organs such as kidneys and corneas from the prisoners,” he added. His jailers were said to inform the prisoners their fate was “inevitable death.”

Catholic Online’s report alludes to some previous allegations of ISIS organ harvesting, including 2014 reports that the Islamic State was selling stolen organs to finance its war machine… and business was so good it had to recruit foreign doctors to cut organs from both slain Islamic State fighters and living captives, including children. The organ-selling operation was said to be based in Mosul, the captured city that serves as the Islamic State’s stronghold in Iraq.

In February 2015, the United Nations investigated allegations of ISIS organ harvesting from Iraq’s ambassador to the U.N., Mohamed Alhakim. Alhakim claimed twelve doctors in Mosul had been executed by ISIS for refusing to participate in organ theft; some of their own organs were then removed. The investigation seems inconclusive seven months later, despite support from the World Medical Association. Of course, it would be extremely difficult to get accredited U.N. investigators into the Islamic State to conduct a proper investigation.

There have been allegations of organ harvesting in Syria as well, not all of it perpetrated by ISIS.

Discussions between Islamic State jihadis and their supporters about the price of harvested organs have recently been spotted on social media — and as if that wasn’t bad enough, they were talking about extracting those organs from slaves, including female sex slaves.