U.S. airstrikes killed 16 militants affiliated with the Islamic State terrorist group in northern Somalia, officials there said Monday.
A spokesperson for security operations in the Puntland region, Brigadier General Mohamud Mohamed Ahmed, disclosed the death toll in an interview VOA’s Somali Service.
“The strike carried out by our international security partners killed at least 16 militants including two senior members identified as the group’s bomb-makers, and a bomb factory was destroyed,” Ahmed said.
He said local officials are working to verify the names and nationalities of the bomb-makers.
Ahmed said that the United Arab Emirates played a role Sunday’s attack.
“The United States government and the United Arab Emirates, both our partners supporting us in the fight against terrorists, were involved [in] the strikes on Sunday night,” he added.
Ahmed said the strikes targeted Godka Kunle and Xankookin, two villages in the Cal Miskaad mountain range in Puntland’s Bari region.
Ahmed said during the airstrikes, the militants launched drone attacks on the bases of the Puntland security forces in the area.
“Trying to hit back the bases of our security forces, the militants used seven drones. Puntland forces shot down five of them and two others, apparently with explosives, went off,” Ahmed claimed.
Somali and U.S. authorities have been working to root out Islamic State groups that established hideouts in mountainous parts of Puntland, a semi-autonomous region in northern Somalia.
The U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a statement Monday that it conducted an airstrike against ISIS-Somalia in the country’s northeast Sunday, killing two terrorists, according to an initial assessment.
AFRICOM said no civilians were harmed in the operation and said it would continue to evaluate the results and provide updates as necessary.
Speaking in Mogadishu, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud commended the U.S. airstrikes.
“The latest U.S. precision strikes against terrorist elements in Puntland reaffirms the strong partnership between Somalia and the United States in the fight against terrorism,” Mohamud said in a statement posted by the Somali National News Agency (SONNA).
Sunday’s airstrike is the second the U.S. military carried out in Somalia this month.
A similar operation on Feb. 1, which targeted senior ISIS-Somalia leadership in a network of cave complexes in Puntland’s Golis Mountains, killed approximately 14 ISIS operatives, including Ahmed Maeleninine, who the U.S. identified as a key recruiter and financier responsible for coordinating jihadi movements into the U.S. and Europe.
Puntland authorities recently launched a military offensive against extremist groups in the region following months of preparations.
Puntland claims to have since killed more than 200 Islamic State fighters, dozens of them foreign fighters, and captured villages and bases in the mountainous area controlled by IS.
