DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – The White Helmets, which operates under the guise of an aid group in Syria, has been involved in the forcible removal of organs from civilians living in areas controlled by militants, a survey by a Russian institution has revealed.
The survey, dubbed "White Helmets: terrorist abettors and sources of disinformation,” was conducted by the Foundation for the Study of Democracy.
Presenting the study’s findings, Maxim Grigoryev, director of the organization, said the White Helmets evacuated people with the promise of medical assistance, but later handed their bodies — with some vital organs missing — to their relatives.
He added that the organ removals came to light after the bodies were examined.
The White Helmets claims to be a humanitarian NGO, but it has been accused of working with anti-Damascus terrorists and staging false-flag chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
Syria views the White Helmets as "a branch of al-Qaeda and al-Nusra” militant outfits and a "PR stunt” by the U.S., the UK and France.
"They [White Helmets] were a key element in this illegal scheme of organ removal. We learned about those incidents from the people whom we interviewed. This information came as an unpleasant surprise to us,” Grigoryev said.
He further noted that the survey was based on interviews with White Helmets members, former militants and residents of Syrian areas where White Helmets were most active, including Aleppo, Damascus, Douma, Dayr al-Zawr and Saqba.
Grigoryev also pointed out that the illegal extraction and trade of human organs was practiced in late 1990s, when White Helmets co-founder James Le Mesurier was in Yugoslavia. Le Mesurier, a former British army officer, was found dead in Istanbul earlier this month.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Zionist regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in the country.
The conflict has largely wound down recently.
In a latest development, at least seven people have lost their lives and more than two dozen others sustained injuries when foreign-sponsored militants carried out a series of mortar attacks against residential areas in Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo.
Syria’s state television network reported that seven civilians were killed and 30 more were wounded when mortar shells fired by militants positioned in the western and northwestern sectors of the city slammed into five districts, namely al-Adhamiyah, al-Jamiliyah, New Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawla and Salahuddin.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "one rocket fired from western Aleppo hit a car in Salahuddin, killing four occupants.”
Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that the wounded were taken to the Razi Hospital to receive proper medical treatment.