According to a recent report by Alsumaria News, financial pressure has forced Daesh to seek cash in other ways. The group has turned to the organ trade, and reports suggest that some of the organs being sold to generate much-needed cash are being stolen from their own members.
"A medical unit belonging to the ISIS [Daesh] stole human organs, including kidneys and other organs, from 85 militants in Nineveh hospitals, and transferred them to other hospital in the outskirt of the city," the agency said in a statement.
"Dozens of human organs were stolen from civilians and bodies that were transferred to the forensic medicine department."
According to reports, to raise funds the extremist group uses mediators to transport harvested organs to Syria where they are then smuggled into international black markets.
"This is clearly something bigger than we think," Alhakim said.
A Daesh-related document acquired in 2015 revealed that the group had passed a fatwa allowing organs to be removed from captives, in order to save a Muslim's life.
"The apostate's life and organs don't have to be respected and may be taken with impunity," the ruling reportedly says.
