Bosaso (PP News Desk) — Details are emerging of an attack launched by Puntland Security Forces against a hideout of the Islamic State in Somalia, the proscribed organisation. Puntland forces targeted an ISIS hideout at Timirshe village under the jurisdiction of Iskushuban district, and hideouts and bases Tuursamaale and Camayra near Qandala.
Sources from Puntland security forces have told Puntland Post that troops killed 8 ISIS fighters “who were regrouping in the hideout” at Timirshe. There are no independent accounts to corroborate the scant details about the attack.
“Puntland Security Forces have conducted operations at Tuursamaale and Camayrya where more twenty ISIS fighters were killed including senior Somali officers and a foreign officer in charge of training and forging links between ISIS and other affiliates in other parts of the world. ISIS has been based in Somalia since 2014″ reads a Puntland Security Forces statement posted in its Facebook page”.
ISIS has hideouts and bases in parts of Bari region known for infrastructural inadequacies that the group and other terrorist organisations exploit to plan attacks against main towns such as Bosaso.
Last year, drones had killed several men who were scraping frankincense off trees after the United States Africa Command mistook them for ISIS fighters. Poor service delivery, minimum presence of Puntland State Institutions and a weaker link between people and Puntland government have long made Iskushuban and some Bari districts a strategic choice for ISIS to spread its wings in Puntland.
ISIS has been in competition with Al-shabaab to levy an illegal tax on businesses in certain districts in Bari to increase its revenues.
© Puntland Post, 2020
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