Bartamaha (Nairobi):-Security forces from the Somali breakaway state of Puntland launched Sunday a fresh raid against an Al Qaeda-linked militia, leaving at least seven people dead, officials and witnesses said.

The attack comes nearly two weeks after a similar deadly offensive targeting the group of several hundred fighters led by local warlord Mohamed Said Atom, who is on a UN Security Council watchlist.

Puntland Security Minister Yusuf Ahmed Qeyr proclaimed victory over the militia in the raid in the Sanaag region, which is on the mountainous frontier between Puntland and Somaliland, another autonomous region.

‘We have attacked their bases and took control of their barracks. Our forces are now in full control of the Galgala Mountains and the enemy fled the area suffering heavy losses,’ Qeyr told reporters.

‘We have killed more than 10 of them and took several of them as prisoners,’ he said, adding that there was a casualty toll on the Puntland side but that it was ‘not a heavy one’.

Residents confirmed that there had been fighting for around four hours, causing casualties on both sides.

‘We have seen seven combatants from the two sides who were killed in the fighting but it is not yet clear who is fully controlling the contested areas,’ said Mohamed Bashir, an elder.

Another resident, Said Hussein, also said seven people were killed.

A senior medic at the Bossasso hospital said that 15 injured Puntland soldiers were admitted and that one had died of his injuries.

Puntland forces launched their first attack on Mohamed Said Atom’s forces on July 26.

The warlord has been singled out by the UN Security Council for violating an arms embargo and is believed to be a key supplier of arms to the Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab group that controls much of the rest of Somalia.

Puntland officials said the remote mountains risked becoming an ideal hide-out for Somalia’s growing Shebab-hosted contingent of foreign jihadis, akin to Afghanistan’s Tora Bora mountains.

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Source:-AFP.

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