Somalia’s militant Islamist group al-Shabab says it has carried out a major assault on a military base in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland.<\/p>\n
Its fighters killed 61 government troops and seized 16 vehicles in the dawn raid, the group said.<\/p>\n
A Puntland government minister has denied the high death toll, but did not give separate casualty figures.<\/p>\n
The al-Qaeda-linked group has carried out several big attacks on military bases in Somalia.<\/p>\n
In January, it said it had killed 50 Kenyan soldiers in an assault on their base in Kolbiyow town in the south of the country.<\/p>\n
Kenyan troops are part of an 18,000-strong African Union (AU) force helping the UN-backed government tackle al-Shabab in Somalia.<\/p>\n
In the the latest attack, the militants withdrew after more than three hours of fighting with government forces, residents told the BBC.<\/p>\n
The attack took place on the base near the remote Galgala Mountains, about 70km (43 miles) from the port city of Bosaso.<\/p>\n
Confirming the attack, Puntland Security Minister Abdiaziz Hirsi said that an investigation was under way and details would be given later.<\/p>\n
The Galgala Mountains are a stronghold of al-Shabab, but a faction of militants broke away in 2015 to affiliate themselves with the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Somalia’s militant Islamist group al-Shabab says it has carried out a major assault on a military base in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland. Its fighters killed 61 government troops and seized 16 vehicles in the dawn raid, the group said. A Puntland government minister has denied the high death toll, but did not give separate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[3833,1018],"yoast_head":"\n