At least 16 members of the jihadist Islamic State group have reportedly contracted the deadly and incurable HIV virus from two of their Moroccan sex slaves in al-Mayadeen, Syria, and have been ordered by their superiors to become suicide bombers.
The HIV-infected ISIS members are being held in quarantine at a national hospital in al-Mayadeen, according to ARA News.
The two Moroccan women who infected the ISIS militants with HIV reportedly escaped to Turkey for fear of being killed by the Islamic extremists.
"Most of those infected are foreign militants who had sexual intercourses with two Moroccan women. The women passed on the disease to the militants before their infection was revealed. We were ordered by the group's local leadership to transfer the infected militants to a quarantine centre in the city," a Syrian doctor in the city was quoted as saying.
After the cases were uncovered, the ISIS leadership panicked and ordered to run HIV tests on all the group's members in the Deir ez-Zor province.
Those found positive for HIV infection were ordered to sacrifice their lives by becoming suicide bombers.
"IS leadership is planning to assign suicide attacks for its militants who are tested positive with AIDS," according to a civil rights activist in al-Mayadeen.
Last June, an Indonesian member of ISIS reportedly passed HIV to his Yazidi girl whom he raped. The girl was subsequently sold to other ISIS members in Shaddadi city in Syria.
According to the Sound and Picture human rights group in Syria, HIV has spread to other ISIS militants in the city. The Indonesian ISIS member was executed for spreading the disease, reports said.
Before this, the Indonesian ISIS member donated blood at an ISIS hospital in Shaddadi last May before he was tested positive for HIV, raising concerns among ISIS of the possible infection of other group members.
Meanwhile, ISIS militants destroyed a temple in Palmyra, Syria, following the beheading of a local scholar, according to TIME. Palmyra is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The report said ISIS used explosives to destroy the Baalshamin Temple.
ISIS claimed that ancient relics are symbols of idolatry and their destruction is purportedly part of the group's campaign to eradicate paganism.
