ISIS Bans Cell Phones: Chops Off Women's Hands, Whips Men For Calling Their Relatives, Using Telephones

Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq reportedly cut off the hands of three women and whipped five men for violating a cell phone ban in Mosul, Iraq. 

ISIS opposes all phone use amid concerns residents will share sensitive information that would help the U.S.-led airstrike campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, media reports indicate. The coalition has targeted ISIS fighters since August, with at least 20 airstrikes in Mosul.

The cell phone ban and subsequent punishments appear to be the latest acts of violence and brutality from ISIS, which made swift advances in Iraq last summer and has turned Raqqa, Syria, into its capital.

In recent weeks, ISIS fighters reportedly forced Syrian civilians to donate blood for wounded fighters. Female Yazidi hostages also were required to give blood.

“Forcing civilians to donate blood is prohibited and inhuman, especially since the IS group does so randomly, regardless of the type of blood,” al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper reporter Jiwan Soz told ARA News. "The group is drawing blood in a primitive way without using the medical tools necessary for this process."