At least nine people have been killed after fighters from the al-Shabaab Islamist militant group attacked a military base in Somalia's autonomous Puntland region, media reports citing officials said on Wednesday.
According to officials, the militants attacked Puntland forces stationed at Sugure village in Bari region near the Galgala Mountains on Wednesday night. The attack was repelled by Puntland forces, killing seven militants and with two casualties on their side, they added.
Separately, media reports indicated that ten Puntland soldiers were killed after their truck was hit by a roadside bomb explosion near Sugure. Puntland military officials later confirmed the incident, but did not say how may soldiers were killed in the explosion.
Meanwhile, al-Shabaab confirmed that its forces had carried out the attack on the military base as well as the roadside bombing, and claimed that at least 29 Puntland soldiers were killed in the ensuing gun-battle.
Puntland declared autonomy in 1998, seven years after Somalia plunged into anarchy following the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre's government in 1991. It does not demand complete independence from Somalia.
Until recently, Puntland had been spared of violence associated with the al-Shabaab insurgency when compared to the rest of the country. But the radical group is currently trying to establish itself in Puntland, after it was forced out of its strongholds in southern Somalia by African Union peacekeepers and Somali security forces earlier this year.
Al-Shabaab is Somalia's most prominent and influential Islamist militant unit, and is branded a terror organization by the United States and most of the international community. The organization is the military wing of the Islamist movement ousted by Ethiopia-backed Somali forces in 2006.
Until recently, al-Shabaab and other allied groups controlled large areas in southern Somalia where they enforced strict Islamic laws or Sharia. But in recent months, Somali forces, backed by AU peacekeepers, have managed to seize control of most regions under rebel control, except some pockets in rural southern and central Somalia.
Incidentally, Somalia had undergone a peace and national reconciliation process in recent months, with the country's U.N.-backed transitional federal institutions implementing the "Roadmap for the End of Transition" devised last September.
The transition process culminated in the election of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as President in September, giving Somalia its first proper government since the fall Siad Barre's government a decade ago. Nevertheless, Somalia still witnesses frequent bombings and militant attacks, mainly in the capital Mogadishu.
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May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.