MOGADISHU (Reuters) – The Islamic State armed group attacked military bases in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland state overnight with suicide car and motorbike bombs, a military official said on Tuesday.
Puntland announced a major offensive against Islamic State and a rival Islamist group, the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, in December and claims to have since killed dozens of foreign fighters, captured several IS bases, and forced a senior commander to surrender.
“Last night after midnight, IS fighters attacked us in the recently liberated bases with suicide car and motorbike bombs. Many IS infantry attacked us, and the fighting is still ongoing,” Mohamud Fadhigo, a Puntland military spokesperson, told Reuters.
The Islamic State faction in Somalia has become an increasingly important part of its parent organisation’s worldwide network in recent years, and was the target of U.S. air strikes earlier this month.
Somalia’s state news agency reported on Tuesday that security forces had repelled attacks on military positions in the Hagaaro and Togo-Jecel areas of Puntland’s Cal Miskaad mountains.
With an estimated 700 to 1,500 fighters, Islamic State’s Somalia wing has grown in recent years thanks to an influx of foreign fighters and increasing revenues. But it is still much smaller than al Shabaab, which controls large parts of southern and central Somalia.
(Reporting by Feisal Omar; Writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Ros Russell)
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