Al-Shabaab militants seize control of town in Somalia's Puntland region
Al-Shabaab militants seize control of town in Somalia's Puntland region
Al-Shabaab militants captured a town in Somalia's northeast after local military forces retreated from a military base.
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Puntland, like much of Somalia, has faced threats from al-Shabaab and IS extremists [AFP]
Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia seized control of a town in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region on Saturday after capturing a military base.
The al-Qaeda-linked group took control of Af-Urur after soldiers left the military base, army officer Farah Ali was cited by Bloomberg as saying.
Local military forces described the soldiers' withdrawal from the base as a "tactical change".
Semi-autonomous Puntland, which forms the very tip of the Horn of Africa along the Indian Ocean coast and the Gulf of Aden, recognises Somalia's central government in Mogadishu but runs its own affairs in the region.
Puntland is only one of several Somali regions to oppose central control, from the breakaway republic of Somaliland along the Gulf of Aden, to statelets such as Jubaland in the far south, where rival warlords claim control.
Like much of Somalia, Puntland has suffered from decades of clan warfare and, more recently, terror attacks by militants aligned with al-Qaeda or Islamic State group.
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