GAROWE, Somalia (Reuters) – Security forces in Somalia repulsed an attack by Islamic State suicide bombers on a military base in the northeastern region of Puntland on Tuesday, the local state broadcaster and a military official said.
It was the first time Islamic State has attempted such a large and sophisticated attack in the country, coming weeks after the semi-autonomous state announced a major offensive against Islamic State and a rival Islamist group, the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab.
The deputy speaker of Puntland’s parliament was visiting the base at the time of the attack, Captain Yusuf Mohamed, an officer in Puntland’s counter-terrorism forces, told Reuters.
He said nine suicide bombers had been killed and several soldiers had been injured.
Puntland State TV said on Facebook eight suicide bombers were among those killed in the raid near the town of Dharjaale in the Bari region.
Somalia’s information minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The group was officially recognised as the Somali province of Islamic State in 2017 and has been based in the mountainous areas of Puntland. For many years, it was considered a minor security threat in the Horn of Africa country compared with al Shabaab, which controls swathes of southern Somalia.
In recent years, however, the Somali franchise has refashioned itself as an important part of the jihadist group’s worldwide network, with its head, Abdulqadir Mumin, being named its global leader by some media outlets.
Security analysts say Islamic State in Somalia has grown in strength because of an influx of foreign fighters and improved revenue through the extortion of local businesses, becoming the group’s “nerve centre” in Africa.
“This looks like a preemptive strike to send a message before Puntland’s upcoming offensive,” said Jay Bahadur, co-director of Scopus, a regionally focused investigative consultancy.
“If this included a vehicle bomb, it appears that they are directly trying to copy al Shabaab’s tactics of complex attacks.”
(Reporting by Abdiqani Hassan in Garowe and Hereward Holland in Nairobi; Additional reporting by Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu; Writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Alison Williams)
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