Several ISIS fighters have been killed and over a dozen others wounded in security operations in northern Somalia, Puntland state authorities confirmed Wednesday barely three days after the region’s security minister survived bomb attack.
In a statement, Puntland security forces said the fighters were killed while planting improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on roadsides in Hirta-Hamura and Balididin villages in Bari region.
According to the statement, the forces will continue operations against al-Shabaab.
On 26th of this month, Puntland security minister Abdisamad Gallan escaped a bomb attack when his motorcade was targeted in the northeastern Bari region.
The blast occurred when improvised explosive devices were detonated remotely on the outskirts of the state’s commercial city of Bosaso, the capital of the Bari region.
The blast killed one soldier while wounding several others.
ISIS claimed the responsibility for the attack.
The pro-Islamic State faction in northeastern Somalia is led by Sheikh Abdulkadir Mumin, a former Al-Shabaab cleric who pledged his allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2015.
In 2016, the U.S. State Department designated Mumin as a global terrorist.
Since the emergence of the IS faction in October 2015, the group has claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in Puntland and southern Somalia.
