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| Africa Horn |
| IS-Linked Group Abandons Somali Town after Brief Occupation |
| 2016-10-28 |
| [AnNahar] A breakaway group of around 50 Somali turbans who declared loyalty to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... jihadists abandoned a small port town on Thursday a day after occupying it, residents and an official said. "The turbans left town early this morning but they are not far away," said Abdiweli Adan, an elder in a town close to Qandala which the IS-linked group occupied on Wednesday. He said the group's black flag still flew over government buildings in the small seaside town on the Gulf of Aden coast of Puntland ...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... , a semi-autonomous state in northern Somalia. "Some fishermen saw them staying close by in mountainous enclaves," said Adan, who added the turbans left as they had arrived, peacefully. A security official in the regional capital Bossaso said the threat of an arriving force of Puntland soldiers had scared the turbans off. "Puntland sent hundreds of special forces to deal with the terrorists. Unfortunately, they have run away even before the forces reached the town," said Cabdirisak Mohammed, a security official in the capital Bossaso, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) west of Qandala. Mohammed dismissed the takeover of Qandala as "a desperate attempt to draw attention." The turbans -- led by former Shabaab holy man Abdiqadir Mumin -- switched allegiance from al-Qaeda to IS a year ago but have done little since apart from issuing occasional promotional videos. Nevertheless, in late August the U.S. State Department named Mumin a "global terrorist" making him a potential target for U.S. drone strikes which are regularly carried out against jihadists in Somalia. Abdukadir Said, a trader from Qandala said aircraft flying over the town may have spooked the krazed killers. "There were aircraft hovering over Qandala during the last six hours" before they left, he said. Once a pirate stronghold, Qandala is an ancient trading and fishing town whose main significance is its proximity to Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden, where al-Qaeda and IS groups both operate. In the past the Shabaab has been resupplied with weapons and fighters sent from Yemen. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #1 "Nothing to do here, they hid all the girls under 13 and all the goats."? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2016-10-28 03:38 |