(Forelines) – According to military authority stated on Tuesday, the Islamic State armed group assaulted military bases in northeastern Puntland state in Somalia overnight with suicide car and motorbike bombs, but government forces resisted the attack and airstrikes killed 70 militants, as per Reuters report.
Puntland declared a key offensive against Islamic State and a rival Islamist group, the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, in December and allegations to have since eliminated dozens of foreign fighters, claimed several IS bases, and forced a chief commander to surrender.
“Puntland’s anti-terrorist forces knew the information and so foiled and shot dead the suicide bombers who were on foot, on bikes and cars,” a Puntland military spokesperson, Mohamud Fadhigo, stated to Reuters.
The UAE and other Gulf countries have been supporting the training of Somalia’s militarizedq forces in current years.
“With the help of UAE air strikes, we also defeated the IS infantry. We killed about 70 militants,” stated by Mohamud Fadhigo, as per Reuters report.
Mohamud Fadhigo, Puntland forces had further faced casualties in the overnight assault, but denied to give a figure.
The Islamic State faction in Somalia has become an increasingly significant part of its parent organisation’s worldwide network in current years, and was the hit of United States airstrikes prior this month.
According to Reuters, quoted Somalia’s state news agency on Tuesday that security forces had resisted assaults on military positions in the Hagaaro and Togo-Jecel regions of Puntland’s Cal Miskaad mountains.
Approximately 700 to 1,500 fighters, Islamic State’s Somalia wing has expanded in current years thanks to an influx of foreign fighters and raising revenues. But it is still much lesser than al Shabaab, which rule huge parts of southern and central Somalia.