Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Al-Qaida steals blood for injured fighters

MOSUL: Members of al-Qaida in Mesopotamia have been holding up blood banks and hospitals at gunpoint, stealing blood for their wounded fighters rather than risk having them arrested at medical facilities, according to Iraqi doctors, employees at health centers and the Sunni insurgents themselves.



Iraqi health officials say the raids have been occurring for some time in provinces with large Sunni Arab populations and appear to signal an insurgency desperate to safeguard its core group of fighters. But the insurgents have a diminished ability to intimidate hospital staffs into caring for them directly and dwindling support among fellow Sunni Arabs, including doctors, the officials said.



The Iraqi security force members that guard medical facilities have often stood idly by as the armed robberies take place, according to workers. This has reinforced doubts about Iraq\'s ability to take on even a diminished insurgency as the US continues to reduce its troops in the country.



Hadad Hamad, a doctor in Anbar Province, said the raids occurred in western Iraq as early as 2005, when \"al-Qaida fighters burst into Al Qaim Hospital\'s blood bank, seized large quantities of blood and took it\" to a nearby village, apparently to treat their wounded.



The hospital, near the Syrian border, continues to be the focus of Qaida raids. This summer, the hospital was ordered closed for several days to protect workers after doctors and other staff members had received death threats for refusing to cooperate with al-Qaida\'s demands for blood and other aid.



What is not clear, however, is whether the stolen blood would do an injured person any good. Imperfectly matched blood can prove fatal. \"Even if you had the same blood type, you\'d have to make a perfect match,\" said Yaseen Ahmed Abbass, director of the Red Crescent Society in Iraq. \"It is not an easy procedure.\"



But some doctors working in Sunni areas believe that Qaida has its own specialists who perform blood transfusions and treat shrapnel and bullet wounds — and carry out more gruesome procedures as well.



A man who claims to be a Qaida fighter, who identified himself with the nom de guerre of Abu Mustafa al-Mejmai, said insurgents has been compelled to steal blood due to military pressure from American and Iraqi forces. The insurgents, he said, had also established their own clinics staffed by doctors and nurses. nyt news service
News From: http://www.7StarNews.com

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