By Ahmed Mahmoud
MOSUL, Iraq – The Islamic State (ISIS) authorities in Mosul have executed several doctors and threatened others with arrest and flogging if they refused to treat wounded and sick members of the group, local doctors said.
“Dozens of doctors in the hospital were arrested and executed because they refused to go with ISIS to their strongholds, and the fate of many of them is still unknown.” Director of Ibn Sina Teaching Hospital in Mosul, Hassan Fadel Allaf, told Rudaw.
According to Allaf, the threat comes after some doctors in the Mosul Health Department refused to treat ISIS militants in their remote bases and villages.
“ISIS even punishes doctors who have official excuses and are on leave,” he said. “They are punishing most of the doctors who reside in the hospital and work on night shifts, and force them to go with them to examine the extremists and their leaders.”
Dr. Allaf claimed that ISIS have so far arrested 10 doctors from the public Al-Jimhuri Hospital, “all well-known specialists in the city and executed four others,”
“The fate of four neurosurgeons is still unknown,” said Muzaffar Ahmed, the brother of one of the executed doctors.
According to staff members of the Mosul Health Dept., ISIS has ordered all doctors to work round the clock.
In the past several days of fighting with the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, ISIS has suffered heavy losses and scores of wounded militants are believed to have been taken by the group to Mosul hospitals.
“ISIS arrested me in early August and kept me for around 20 days,” said Hikmat Sultan, director of Al-Salam Public Emergency Hospital in Mosul. “They also gave me 120 lashes because a number of other doctors and I refused to go to the district of Tal Afar to treat some of their militants.”
“I am in my 50s, and the physical and psychological pain I endured during the flogging by those militants was beyond imagination,” Sultan added.
Nima Tahir, a female resident doctor at Al-Salam Hospital said that ISIS militants pressure her and her colleagues to join the group as field doctors.
“The ISIS militants are following me every now and then and force me to work for them, but I refuse that,” Tahir claimed. “The extremists have withheld our salaries for four months, but I have volunteered to save the women and children who are suffering from ISIS in Mosul hospitals. I will continue working even if it was for free.”
Warqa Fadil, a general practitioner however, said that she offers her services to the group for her own safety.
“I am forced to obey the radicals and go out with them at any time or place. I am afraid for my safety and the future of my four children who are studying in Mosul University,” she said.
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