...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion...
Lawmaker Said Hussein Nur was rubbed out as he left a mosque after evening prayers.
"The Mujahedeen fighters got rid of an apostate member in the Puntland parliament in northern Galkayo," said a statement from Al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
, Somalia's al-Qaeda aligned krazed killers.
"Such attacks will continue", said the statement, posted on a Shabaab website.
Puntland's vice president, Abdihakin Abdulahi Haji, confirmed the attack.
"A member of the Puntland parliament was assassinated in Galkayo and even though we do not have details about the ongoing investigations, we suspect that the violent elements are responsible for the killing," Haji told news hounds, referring to the Shabaab.
Witnesses in northern Galkayo town described the attack by heavily armed gunnies outside a mosque on Friday evening.
"They opened fire and killed the politician who had come out of the mosque together with his security guard," said Abdulahi Muse, who witnessed the attack.
"The gunnies also hurled a hand grenade into a crowd of people who tried to chase the killers and several people were maimed," he said.
According to officials, the MP addressed a gathering a few hours before he was rubbed out during which he called on Galkayo residents to stand against violence.
Nur is the second Puntland politician to be rubbed out in recent weeks as Shabaab continues its campaign of suicide kabooms and liquidations targeting government figures.
Under pressure from African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
and Somali soldiers on the ground and American drones overhead, Shabaab has retreated from most of Somalia's towns since mid-2012 and switched to an asymmetric type of warfare.
Somali government and United Nations
...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly...
officials say that the group has split, moving northwards into Puntland, and southwards into the Jubba valley.
Last month Shabaab grabbed credit for a suicide attack on a UN minibus in the Puntland town of Garowe that left seven people dead, including four foreign aid workers from the children's agency UNICEF.