(14 Mar 2025) GAROWE (Halqabsi News) – Puntland security forces have killed a senior ISIS explosives and drone specialist in a targeted offensive in the Cal-Miskaad mountains of northern Somalia’s Bari region, delivering a major blow to the group’s ability to wage asymmetric warfare in the Horn of Africa.
The operation resulted in the deaths of five ISIS militants, including the high-ranking technician, who trained fighters in modifying commercial drones for surveillance and explosives delivery. Puntland troops also seized strategic bases, dismantled explosives labs, and reclaimed water wells long weaponized by ISIS to extort local herder communities.
In a 24-hour assault spanning the Huraanhur valley and Togga Raq-raq, Puntland forces overran ISIS command centers in Difaaca Shamuurka, a key militant stronghold in the Geesaqabad area. Three drones, used by ISIS to ambush security forces and monitor troop movements, were destroyed.
“This operation degrades ISIS’s capacity to terrorize our people,” said Puntland of Interior, Abdi Juha. “We’ve liberated water sources and severed their logistical networks.”
The Cal-Miskaad mountains, a smuggling corridor linking Somalia’s coast to Yemen, have hosted ISIS-Somalia since its 2015 split from Al-Shabaab. The faction, numbering 200-300 fighters, seeks to establish a wilayat (province) in Puntland, exploiting the region’s instability and proximity to vital Gulf of Aden shipping lanes.
Puntland has vowed to eliminate ISIS remnants in the Cal-Miskaad mountains, with ongoing air and ground operations aimed at securing the area and preventing militant resurgence.
Halqabsi News
