They spoke of a massive illegal human organ trade across the border with Turkey, set up by the militants. Civilians learned to fear the local emergency vehicles as they sped around the city hunting for potential donors.
One of the "patients" happened to be 60-year-old Abu Mohammad.
"We were shelled from a grenade launcher and immediately afterwards rebels came in an emergency vehicle. They ended up stealing one of my kidneys and part of my spleen," he told Sputnik.
He further described the mechanism of the traders' operations: a team of rebels wait for an explosion and immediately afterwards pounce on the wounded and dead. Some of those wounded could have been later returned home, he said.
Alia has been residing in the Bustan al-Qasr district of Aleppo which was under control of Al-Nusra Front. Once she was offered to undergo treatment in a Turkish clinic as none of eastern Aleppo's clinics had enough medication.
"There was a huge market on the border with Turkey where virtually anything was on sale, including women and children. A dead body was selling for 25,000 Syrian pound (SYP), the equivalent of $115 [at the exchange rate on the day of publication], a body of an injured person was selling for 150,000 SYP ($700)," she told Sputnik.
"Every day those wounded at war are sent to hospitals and are regarded as potential donors," she said.
According to statistics, there have been 18,000 documented cases of illegal removal of human organs in the north of Syria. However the majority of these secretive crimes will remain that way, as people are afraid to openly speak about
them.
A group of forensic experts from Aleppo told Sputnik that it was pretty easy to obtain a human organ in the city. It is located not far from the Syrian-Turkish border which could be easily crossed from the districts which were under control of the rebels.
Many foreigners who were allegedly offering humanitarian aid have flooded the city through that border. In fact, these were predominantly mafia who, together with foreign medics, were hunting for human organs and sending them across the border.
Doctor Bagjat Akrush told Sputnik that many Syrian medics have been involved in this criminal industry under the cover of the war. It was most active in the hot spots in the north and east of Syria and in the refugee camps.
The doctor said that the majority of these crimes have been committed in the north of the country and children were among those suffered. Up to 100,000 children in the refugee camps on the Turkish territory are facing the same very danger, he said.
Up to 80 percent of refugees in these camps are women and children who have been on sale for almost three years. And it is no secret that the Turks are also involved in it.
The war in Syria made it possible for criminals to get very cheap human organs, Akrush went on. They choose a victim through a medical organization, desirably a healthy one as the organs of a diseased man are not that in-demand. Then the organs are sent across the border.
Even though Syrian law prohibits the trade in human organs, such crimes are usually done illegally and covertly, he finally stated.
