Puntland forces attack al-Shabab in Somali mountains, Al-Shabaab Spreads Attacks to Somalia's Puntland State. Shabaab, Puntland forces clash in northern Somalia

update Shabaab, Puntland forces clash in northern Somalia


Forces from Somalia's northern Puntland region have attacked a cell of al-Shabab militants, officials say.

update on Thursday, July 22, 2010 story  Fears of a new Tora Bora in northern Somalia 
Puntland President Abdirahman Sheik Mohamed says the security forces killed 13 Islamist fighters after they attacked an army post near the commercial capital, Bosasso.The mountain raid was the first time Puntland's forces have clashed with al-Shabab, analysts say.The al-Qaeda-linked group controls much of southern and central Somalia.At least two members of Puntland's security forces were also killed in the clashes in the mountains near Galgalo.Puntland is semi-autonomous from the rest of Somalia but is allied to the embattled, UN-backed government in Mogadishu.The Puntland authorities have recently rounded up and deported hundreds of young men in Bosasso and sent them to Mogadishu, accusing them of being al-Shabab sympathisers. bbc
 Al-Shabaab Spreads Attacks to Somalia's Puntland State

(tf.sf) Mogadishu — Abdirashid Mohamed Irro, the minister for commerce of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, stated yesterday that his government was aware that militias trained in Southern Somalia have been sent to cause instability in Puntland, a semi-autonomous state in Northeastern Somalia.

Minister Irro said that the radical group Al Shabaab, has trained and sent militias to destabilise a previously unwavering region."At least 50 regional officials have recently been killed in Puntland by al Shabaab organised militias," said the TFG's commerce minister who hails from the Puntland region.He urged the authority there and the people to collaborate in tackling the growing menace and added that the flow of fanatical militants to the region was high.The government in Puntland has accused a cleric, Sheikh Mohamed Said of keeping militias in the mountain range overlooking Bossaso, the commercial capital of Puntland, 1,500 kilometres northeast of Mogadishu.