The United States says it has obtained a document revealing that the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group has allowed harvesting body organs from their captives.
The memo, found during a US raid in eastern Syria, is dated January 31, 2015, and states that organ harvest is permissible even if it leads to the captive’s death, Reuters reported on Thursday.
The prisoners’ lives “do not have to be respected and may be taken with impunity," says the decree, issued by the terror group’s so-called Research Committee.
“Organs that end the captive's life if removed: The removal of that type is also not prohibited," it reads.
The alleged document echoes similar accusations coming from Iraqi officials, who said the Takfiri group trades human organs for profit.
The document also allows cannibalism under extreme circumstances “in order to eat his (the victim's) flesh, which is part of benefiting from his body.”
The May raid in Syria netted seven terabytes of data in the form of computer hard drives, thumb drives, CDs, DVDs and papers, said Brett McGurk, US President Barack Obama's Special Presidential Envoy for the so-called Global Coalition to Counter ISIL.
Aside from materials illustrating ISIL’s engagement in trafficking antiquities, until now none of the seized documents have been released to the public.
Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Ali Alhakim, recently urged the UN Security Council to review 'evidence' that Daesh could be trafficking in organs to raise cash.
In February, Alhakim had urged the UN Security Council to investigate the deaths of 12 doctors in the ISIL-held city of Mosul. He said the doctors were killed after refusing to remove organs.
The foreign-backed Daesh militants have parts of Syria and Iraq under their control and terrorize the people there through heinous crimes.