Western Nations Seek Access to Captured Daesh Documents in Puntland State of Somalia

[Deeq A.]

Puntland Defence Forces discovered over 300 passports, 600 identification documents, and foreign currencies belonging to foreign terrorists in hideouts abandoned by Daesh militants.

Garowe (PP News Desk) — As Puntland State’s counterterrorism operations against Daesh (ISIS) enter their fourth month, several countries have approached the  government of Puntland State to share the intelligence cache captured during the operations.

In hideouts abandoned by Daesh terrorists, Puntland Defence Forces seized more than 300 passports, 600 identification documents and foreign currencies belonging to foreign terrorists. A substantial number of these documents were issued in Western countries.

It is unclear whether Daesh terrorists stole these documents or whether they belonged to Daesh members.

President Said Abdullahi Deni of Puntland State has been urged by security experts to put in place protocols for handling these documents and other intelligence that might be of interest to Western countries.

Several Western intelligence agencies are putting effort into gaining access to these documents to determine the extent of possible homegrown terrorist threats. “The Puntland State government should resist the temptation to keep the public and Puntland stakeholders in the dark about how it handles key intelligence information related to Daesh” a member of the Kaah  party told Puntland Post.

“It would be hugely embarrassing for any major country that issued passports to Daesh terrorists who were planning to deploy more than ten thousand terrorists under the guise of refugees or visitors to the Calmiskaad mountain range in Somalia” a counterterrorism expert said. There is concern, in the United States, that the Trump administration could weaponise any information related to Daesh terrorists holding American passports, particularly if the passports were not reported as lost or if the passport holders were not under surveillance by the FBI before travelling to Somalia.

© Puntland Post, 2025

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