In their latest desperate, suicide attack, and most likely one of their last, ISIS used motorbikes armed with high powered guns and modified trucks loaded with explosives. A few of the attacking force escaped.
The Islamic State has regrouped in Somalia — and has global ambitions
The Islamic State has also become a more sophisticated fighting force, employing suicide drones, long-distance snipers and bombs.
Puntland soldiers and logistics convoys have targeted dozens of times by drones, a tactic commonly used by militants in Syria and Iraq but new to Somalia.
Footage from captured drones shared with The Post showed that some were equipped with thermal imaging cameras, allowing for nighttime attacks. One model was identified by risk management company Vates Somalia as retailing for upward of $9,000.
The Post obtained footage captured by Puntland Defense Forces showing a drone. Drones have been targeting Puntland soldiers, a new tactic in Somalia.
The expensive drones can carry and release up to four separate munitions. Cheaper self-detonating versions explode into trucks, water tankers or crowds of troops. Injured soldier Abdiqani Muse Warsame, recovering in the hospital after a recent attack, said drones had repeatedly attacked his unit at night.
“We just have our naked eyes and our guns to shoot them,” he said.
Foreign fighters
Puntland’s prisons have more than a dozen men who maintain they were tricked into joining the Islamic State. Some of their claims — like that of a Yemeni man caught during a failed attempt to blow up a police checkpoint in the port city of Bosaso a couple of nights before — didn’t add up.
Also in custody are six Moroccans, who say they were recruited in 2023 from the city of Fes. They described an elaborate journey: driving overland through multiple countries, flying to Addis Ababa and sneaking across the Ethiopian border with Somalia. They traveled through the mountains for days, they said, often in the company of other foreigners, including men from Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Sudan and Ethiopia.
“We trained with Kalashnikovs, in a group of around 30 people — Algerians, Moroccans, Tunisians, Somalis and two Palestinians,” said one of the Moroccans. Like other prisoners, he spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/02/09/somalia-islamic-state-puntland-terrorism/
