We are yet to recapture Qandala-Puntland military official

A military official in Somalia’s northern regional state of Puntland has dismissed reports they had recaptured the port town of Qandala which has been under control of an ISIS affiliate.

Puntland Maritime official Abdirazaq Farah Diriye said that joint pro-government forces are still positioned at an area close to Qandala as they prepare to launch offensive against the militants.

“We are moving towards Qandala town but we are yet to recapture the town, as soon as possible the town will be under our control,” said Diriye in a phone interview with VOA Somali.

Diriye indicated that there are no additional causalities apart from Sunday’s encounter with ISIS fighters in the surrounding areas which resulted in the death of seven fighters from ISIS.

In an interview with BBC Sunday evening, Col Abdinasir Aynab Ali from Puntland said his forces had wrested control of Qandal from the Abdulqadir Mumin led ISIS surrogate.

On Saturday, the forces killed seven fighters loyal to the Islamic State (IS) militant group and injured several others in a fierce fighting according to Yusuf Mohamed, governor of Bari region.

“We have killed seven ISIS (IS) militants at Bashashin area and after fighting, three of our soldiers sustained light injuries in a landmine blast in the area. Our forces pushed the ISIS militants back,” Yusuf Mohamed, governor of Bari region, told reporters Sunday.

Mumin’s group, which renounced Al-Shabaab in favor of Islamic State, is not thought to number more than a couple of hundred fighters.

It has no publicly known operational links to Islamic State in the Middle East.