Forces from Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region have captured swathes of territory from Islamic State during a weeks-long offensive. A military spokesperson told Reuters that at least 85 IS militants were killed while 17 soldiers also died.
Forces from Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region have captured swathes of territory from Islamic State during a weeks-long offensive they hope will draw increased international support, according to officials and Reuters reporters.
The advances come against an IS faction that has gained in importance and was the target last week of the first air strikes of U.S. President Donald Trump’s new administration.
Before those strikes, Reuters reporters who gained rare access to the village of Balidhidin, which IS controlled for a decade, saw Puntland security forces patrolling and residents circulating on foot near the carcasses of army trucks destroyed in recent fighting.
The village is in the middle of the northern Golis Mountains, which are the stronghold of IS in Somalia and were also the site of the U.S. strikes. Villagers said security forces had captured other areas too.
Many in Balidhidin had fled the harsh rule of the militants, especially after they killed the district commissioner in 2021. They took refuge in nearby villages and the port city of Bosaso.
“There was a lot of fear. We were threatened,” said Saido Abdirahman, who had just returned to Balidhidin. “Although we were mothers who were indoors, there was fear which made people flee.”
IS in Somalia – with an estimated 700 to 1,500 fighters in Puntland’s mountains – is much smaller than al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, which controls large parts of southern and central Somalia. But it has become an increasingly important part of its parent organisation’s worldwide network in recent years, analysts say.