The Somali coast guard carry out a patrol off the coast of Bosaso in Puntland on November 19, 2013. By Mohamed Abdiwahab (AFP/File)

Mogadishu (AFP) - Several dozen armed men belonging to an Islamic State-linked group on Wednesday seized control of a small port in Somalia's Puntland region, local residents said.

"We are getting information that Qandala has fallen this morning," said Mohamed Muse, an elder in the town of Bossaso, which lies about 70 kilometres (45 miles) from Qandala.

"Armed Islamist militiamen who we believe are connected with the Islamic State organisation stormed the town and told people they are in control," he said.

Amaq, the IS news agency, reported that Qandala, located on the Gulf of Aden opposite Yemen, had been taken by "Islamic State fighters".

Several local officials said it had fallen to armed Islamists and that part of the population had fled.

"Fishermen near Qandala are reporting the town is being taken and they are not fishing today," said Abdiweli Adan, a resident of the nearby village of Karin.

"The Islamist fighters have taken position alongside the coast and several locations inside town but we don't know who exactly they are," he added.

Government officials in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region in northern Somalia, did not comment on the attack.

While the Al-Qaeda affiliated Shabaab group is active in much of the south and centre of Somalia, it barely has a presence in Puntland.

In March, a few dozen Shabaab fighters travelled by sea from southern Somalia and briefly took control of several coastal villages in Puntland before being killed or captured by the region's security forces. </s> A breakaway group of around 50 Somali militants who declared loyalty to the Islamic State jihadists abandoned a small port town on Thursday a day after occupying it, residents and an official said.

"The militants 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 semi-autonomous state in northern Somalia.

"Some fishermen saw them staying close by in mountainous enclaves," said Adan, who added the militants 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 militants 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 Mohamed, a security official in the capital Bossaso, about 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of Qandala.

The militants — led by former Shabaab cleric 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 US State Department named Mumin a "global terrorist" making him a potential target for US 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 militants. "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. </s> MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A group loyal to Islamic State seized the small port town of Qandala in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region on Wednesday, the first town it has taken since emerging a year ago, officials said.

The group, which refers to itself simply as Islamic State, is a rival to the larger al Shabaab force, which is linked to Islamic State’s rival al Qaeda and once controlled much of Somalia.

“Our soldiers were few and so could not fight longer,” district commissioner Jamac Mohamed Khuurshe said. African peacekeepers are not deployed in Puntland, which lies at the eastern tip of the Horn of Africa.

Soldiers and many residents fled and the militants cut off Qandala’s communications, Khuurshe said.

Earlier on Wednesday, al Shabaab seized a town in southern Somalia after African and Somali government troops withdrew, part of an ongoing back and forth in the region.

Islamic State has been gathering recruits in Puntland, although experts say the scale of its force is unclear and it remains a small player compared to al Shabaab.

Before Qandala’s phone lines were cut off, fisherman Abdirahman Hussein told Reuters: “We just saw Daesh (Islamic State) with their black banner as we were fishing. They said to us: ‘Don’t panic, we will rule you according to the Islamic sharia (law)’.”

Major Saiid Ali, a Puntland police officer, said the group had previously entered two small villages before retreating to hideouts in the Puntland hills, but had never before seized a town.

The Puntland Islamist group first announced its alignment to Islamic State a year ago in a statement on YouTube.

The group is led by Abdiqadir Mumin, a former al Shabaab commander, a sign that some al Shabaab fighters see al Qaeda as a spent force and have been inspired by Islamic State’s campaign in Iraq and Syria.

Several groups beyond Islamic State’s Middle East heartland have made similar declarations of allegiance, although experts say these links are unlikely to go much beyond ideological sympathies.

Al Shabaab has yet to make any comment on the Puntland group.

Separately, al Shabaab said it was behind the killing of a 60-year-old colonel, Siyad Mohamed, in Mogadishu late on Wednesday, following the assassination of an intelligence officer in the capital on Monday.

Al Shabaab’s seizure of Tiyeeglow in southern Somalia on Wednesday gave it back control of an area over which it has long fought with the African Union’s AMISOM force and Somali soldiers.

Ethiopian government spokesman Getachew Reda said the Ethiopian troops that withdrew were not part of Ethiopia’s AMISOM contingent, and that any redeployment was done in consultation with Somali troops. </s> GAROWE, Somalia (Reuters) - Gunmen posing as fishermen killed Dubai government-owned P&O Ports’ operations in Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland on Monday in an attack claimed by Islamist militant group Al Shabaab.

Yusuf Mohamed, governor of Puntland’s Bari region, told Reuters that two men disguised as fishermen had shot Paul Anthony Formosa as he was going to Bossaso port this morning.

He was killed “in the fish market as he was going to Bossaso port this morning. The men armed with pistols hit him (with) several bullets in the head,” Mohamed said.

One of the attackers was shot dead by security forces at the scene and the other detained, he said. Formosa’s LinkedIn account states his nationality as Maltese.

P&O Ports said an employee had died and three others injured in an “incident” at Bossaso Port, without giving further details. The company was cooperating with the Puntland authorities in its investigation, it said in a statement published on Twitter by Dubai’s government media office.

Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack and accused Formosa of being in Somalia “illegally”. The group is fighting to topple Somalia’s Western-backed central government and install its own rule based on its strict interpretation of Islam’s sharia law.

“We are behind the operation ... we had warned him but he turned deaf ear. He was illegally in Somalia,” said spokesman for Al Shabaab’s military operations, Abdiasis Abu Musab.

P&O Ports has run Puntland’s Bossaso port since winning a 30-year concession in 2017 to expand and manage the facility. </s> BOSSASO, Somalia: Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region on Saturday executed five people it said were Islamist militants responsible for killing three senior government officials last year, a military court official said.

Abdifatah Haji Aden, chairman of Puntland's military court, said the five were behind the killings of a director at Puntland's presidential palace, a military prosecutor and a deputy police commander in the port city of Bossaso in December.

The court said the accused were members of the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militant group.

"They had admitted being al Shabaab and killing Puntland officials. We had sentenced them earlier and the execution was carried out today," Aden told Reuters.

"They had killed a deputy police commander of Bossaso, a director at the Puntland palace and a prosecutor in Bossaso."

Al Shabaab's insurgency aims to expel African Union peacekeepers, topple Somalia's Western-backed government and impose its strict version of Islam on the Horn of Africa state.

The group has become more active in Puntland after being pushed out of strongholds further south by the African Union force and the Somali army, experts and officials say. </s> Al Shabaab militants captured a town in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region on Thursday, a senior official said, and the group said it had killed at least 61 soldiers in the fighting.

"Al Shabaab attacked Af Urur town this morning. There were few soldiers there and thus al Shabaab captured the town. It is difficult to know the casualties because the telecommunications were cut off," Bari region governor Yusuf Mohamed told Reuters.

The al Qaeda-linked group said it had also killed 61 soldiers after over-running a military base in the town.

"The number could rise since the operation is still underway," Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military spokesman said in a statement.

Musab said their fighters had also seized weapons and vehicles from the base.

Al Shabaab's insurgency aims to drive out African Union peacekeepers, topple Somalia's Western-backed government and impose its strict version of Islam on the Horn of Africa state. </s> Somali pirates who seized an oil tanker have opened fire on naval troops from the semi-autonomous state of Puntland, sparking clashes between the two sides, an official said.

Clashes started after naval forces tried to stop a boat carrying reinforcement pirates to the ship, said Ali Shire Mohamud, the commissioner of Alula district where the vessel is being held.

Puntland dispatched naval forces to the area after the pirates seized the ship on Monday.

The European Union anti-piracy operation in the region said the pirates are holding the crew captive and demanding a ransom.

The hijacking on Monday was the first such seizure of a large commercial vessel off Somalia since 2012.

International anti-piracy patrols on the crucial trade route had calmed such attacks.

A security official said one soldier was seriously injured in Thursday's clashes involving the Comoros-flagged tanker Aris 13.

The official said pirates on the ship were continuing to receive reinforcements while regional forces mobilise nearby in an effort to free the ship.

A Somali pirate who said he was in touch with the armed men, Bile Hussein, said the pirates moved the ship away from the coast after naval forces approached.

"The ship and crew will remain safe as long as no-one attacks them," Hussein said by phone from an undisclosed location in northern Somalia.

Families of the crew members tearfully pleaded on Wednesday for the men to be released unharmed.

Somali pirates usually hijack ships and crew for ransom. They do not normally kill hostages unless they come under attack.

The ship had been carrying fuel from Djibouti to Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, on Monday when it was approached by men in two skiffs and the tanker issued a call for help. </s> Armed men are demanding a ransom for the release of an oil tanker seized off the coast of Somalia and the crew is being held captive, the EU anti-piracy operation in the region said.

An EU Naval Force statement said the operation had finally made contact with the ship's master, who confirmed that armed men were aboard the Comoros-flagged tanker Aris 13.

Monday's hijacking was the first such seizure of a large commercial vessel off Somalia since 2012.

It came as a surprise to the global shipping industry as patrols by the navies of Nato countries, as well as China, India and Iran, had suppressed Somali pirate hijackings for several years.

However, the United Nations warned in October that the situation was fragile and that Somali pirates "possess the intent and capability to resume attacks".

One expert said some in the region had let down their guard as the situation calmed.

Nato ended its anti-piracy mission off Somalia in December.

A Somali pirate who said he was in touch with the armed men aboard the tanker said the amount of ransom to demand had not yet been decided.

Bile Hussein told The Associated Press that the armed men have locked most of the crew in one room and cut off communication lines.

"Their main concern now is a possible rescue attempt, so that's why all communications were cut off in the afternoon," he said.

The Aris 13, manned by eight Sri Lankan sailors, was carrying fuel from Djibouti to Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, when it was approached by men in two skiffs, said John Steed, the director of Oceans Beyond Piracy.

The EU statement said the ship's master issued a mayday alert.

An official in Somalia's semi-autonomous state of Puntland said over two dozen men boarded the ship off the country's northern coast, an area known to be used by weapons smugglers and members of the al Qaida-linked extremist group al-Shabab.

The ship was anchored off the town of Alula, said Salad Nur, a local elder.

"The ship is on the coast now and more armed men boarded the ship," he told the AP by phone.

The EU Naval Force said it had passed the information from its contact with the ship's master to the oil tanker's owners and an investigation was under way.

Sri Lanka's foreign ministry said in a statement it was in touch with shipping agents and officials abroad for more information to help ensure the crew's "safety and welfare".

A UN shipping database shows the Aris 13 is owned by Armi Shipping SA, whose address is listed in care of Aurora Ship Management FZE, a company based in the United Arab Emirates.

Calls and emails to Aurora went unanswered.

Australian government records from 2014 list the ship's owner as Flair Shipping Trading FZE in the UAE.

An address listed for Flair Shipping in Dubai was for a company called Flair Oil Trading DMCC.

A woman there told an AP reporter the firm was not connected to the ship and directed him to another office.

When no one answered there, the reporter returned to find Argyrios Karagiannis, the managing director of Flair Shipping, entering the first office.

"We will not be releasing any information," Mr Karagiannis said before shutting the door.

The incident involving the Aris 13 represents the first commercial pirate attack off Somalia since 2012, Mr Steed of Oceans Beyond Piracy said.

"The pirates never went away, they were just doing other forms of crime and if any of the measures reduce (which they have, or ships take risks) the pirates are poised to exploit the weakness," he said in an email.

Somali pirates usually hijack ships and crew for ransom.

They do not normally kill hostages unless they come under attack.

Piracy off Somalia's coast was once a serious threat to the global shipping industry.

It has lessened in recent years after an international effort to patrol near the country, whose weak central government has been trying to assert itself after a quarter-century of conflict.

In that time, concerns about piracy off Africa's coast have largely shifted to the Gulf of Guinea.

But frustrations have been rising among local fishermen, including former pirates, at what they say are foreign fishermen illegally fishing in local waters.

Nur, the local elder, told AP that young fishermen including former pirates have hijacked the ship.

"They have been sailing through the ocean in search for a foreign ship to hijack since yesterday morning and found this ship and boarded it," he said on Tuesday.

"Foreign fishermen destroyed their livelihoods and deprived them of proper fishing." </s> MOGADISHU, SOMALIA—Armed men are demanding a ransom for the release of an oil tanker they have seized off the coast of Somalia and the crew is being held captive, the European Union anti-piracy operation in the region announced late Tuesday. An EU Naval Force statement said the operation had finally made contact with the ship’s master, who confirmed that armed men were aboard the Comoros-flagged tanker Aris 13. Monday’s hijacking was the first such seizure of a large commercial vessel off Somalia since 2012. It came as a surprise to the global shipping industry as patrols by the navies of NATO countries, as well as China, India and Iran, had suppressed Somali pirate hijackings for several years. However, the United Nations warned in October that the situation was fragile and that Somali pirates “possess the intent and capability to resume attacks.” One expert said some in the region had let down their guard as the situation calmed. NATO ended its anti-piracy mission off Somalia in December. A Somali pirate who said he was in touch with the armed men aboard the tanker said the amount of ransom to demand had not yet been decided.

Bile Hussein told The Associated Press that the armed men have locked most of the crew in one room and cut off communication lines. “Their main concern now is a possible rescue attempt, so that’s why all communications were cut off in the afternoon,” he said. The Aris 13, manned by eight Sri Lankan sailors, was carrying fuel from Djibouti to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, when it was approached by men in two skiffs, said John Steed, the director of Oceans Beyond Piracy. The EU statement said the ship’s master issued a mayday alert. An official in Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland said over two dozen men boarded the ship off the country’s northern coast, an area known to be used by weapons smugglers and members of the al-Qaida-linked extremist group al-Shabab. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

The ship was anchored Tuesday off the town of Alula, said Salad Nur, a local elder. “The ship is on the coast now and more armed men boarded the ship,” he told the AP by phone. The EU Naval Force said it had passed the information from its contact with the ship’s master to the oil tanker’s owners and an investigation was underway. Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement it was in touch with shipping agents and officials abroad for more information to help ensure the crew’s “safety and welfare.” A U.N. shipping database shows the Aris 13 is owned by Armi Shipping SA, whose address is listed in care of Aurora Ship Management FZE, a company based in the United Arab Emirates. Calls and emails to Aurora went unanswered. Australian government records from 2014 list the ship’s owner as Flair Shipping Trading FZE in the UAE. An address listed for Flair Shipping in Dubai was for a company called Flair Oil Trading DMCC. A woman there told an AP reporter the firm wasn’t connected to the ship and directed him to another office. When no one answered there, the reporter returned to find Argyrios Karagiannis, the managing director of Flair Shipping, entering the first office. “We will not be releasing any information,” Karagiannis said before shutting the door. The incident involving the Aris 13 represents the first commercial pirate attack off Somalia since 2012, Steed of Oceans Beyond Piracy said. “The pirates never went away, they were just doing other forms of crime and if any of the measures reduce (which they have, or ships take risks) the pirates are poised to exploit the weakness,” he said in an email. Somali pirates usually hijack ships and crew for ransom. They don’t normally kill hostages unless they come under attack. Piracy off Somalia’s coast was once a serious threat to the global shipping industry. It has lessened in recent years after an international effort to patrol near the country, whose weak central government has been trying to assert itself after a quarter-century of conflict. In that time, concerns about piracy off Africa’s coast have largely shifted to the Gulf of Guinea. But frustrations have been rising among local fishermen, including former pirates, at what they say are foreign fishermen illegally fishing in local waters. Nur, the local elder, told the AP that young fishermen including former pirates have hijacked the ship. “They have been sailing through the ocean in search for a foreign ship to hijack since yesterday morning and found this ship and boarded it,” he said. “Foreign fishermen destroyed their livelihoods and deprived them of proper fishing.”
A militant group affiliated with ISIL seizes the coastal town of Qandala in the autonomous Puntland region.