Cash-Strapped Daesh Reportedly Trafficking Kids, Human Organs via Turkish Firm

As Daesh continues to lose territory -- and therefore their means of collecting revenue through oil -- in Iraq and Syria, it is believed that the violent extremist group has resorted to trafficking children, and their own members’ organs.

According to an Iraqi News report, the terror group has sold approximately 23 organs taken from their own injured or dead members to a Turkish organ trading organization, the same organization that they are also using to traffic children.

"Special medical unit of the organization [ISIS] proceeded to steal human organs for about 23 [Daesh] militants of those who slept in the hospitals of Nineveh," a local source told the outlet. "What has been stolen from those members included the kidneys, intestines and more; they were transferred under tight control to [an] affiliated hospital on the outskirts of the city."

Daesh’s monthly revenue was said to be around $80 million, until falling to some $56 million in March after losing large areas of territory through bombings and raids.

"This came after the loss of the majority of sources of financial funding [for Daesh], particularly with regard to crude oil," the source added.

The same source claimed that the terror organization has kidnapped over 30 children to be trafficked.

"[Daesh] has kidnapped dozens of children and sold them to the Turkish organ traffickers to finance their budget in Mosul," the source claimed, adding, "More than 30 children aged 9-12 years have been detained by [Daesh] and are being readied to be trafficked to Turkey."

In 2015, the Iraqi Ambassador to the United Nations urged the organization to investigate a Daesh trade in human organs. He noted at the time that many of the civilian bodies found in mass graves were missing kidneys, the heart, and other organs.