HARGEISA, Somalia — Fierce fighting broke out Monday between the forces from the Somali breakaway state of Puntland and an Al Qaeda-linked militia, officials said.

Security officials said at least three Puntland soldiers died while Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole claimed that 13 rebels were killed in the clashes that erupted near Galgala in western Puntland.

“There was fighting near Bosasso this morning where terrorist-sponsored elements, including foreign fighters, attacked our forces. Thirteen of their bodies were counted near Sugure and several of their senior commanders were captured in the fighting,” Farole told reporters.

Puntland had for some time been planning a major operation in the cave-riddled mountains where officials say local warlord Mohamed Said Atom has been building a force of several hundred militants.

“The operation was launched early this morning. So far, we have lost three soldiers. Seven were also wounded,” Colonel Abdurahman Ali, a security official in Puntland’s nearby economic capital of Bosasso, told AFP.

Officials and residents in the mountainous area straddling the unofficial border between Somalia’s northern breakaway states of Puntland and Somaliland had voiced concern recently over Atom’s stepped up activity.

The local warlord has been singled out by the UN Security Council for violating an arms embargo and is believed to be a key supplier of arms to the Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab group that controls much of the rest of Somalia.

They said the remote mountains risked becoming an ideal hide-out for Somalia’s growing Shebab-hosted contingent of foreign jihadis, akin to Afghanistan’s Tora Bora mountains.

“Those terrorists have tried to undermine security in our region twice previously but were defeated by the local communities. I call upon you to stand up again to defend your land as well as you did in the past,” Farole said.

The president of the semi-autonomous territory also urged support from the international community.

“This war terrorists have launched on Puntland today will not be limited to this region. If the international community does not assist us, the war will spread all over the region. Indeed it has already reached Kampala,” he said.

He was referring to July 11 suicide attacks which killed 76 people gathered at entertainment spots in the Ugandan capital to watch the football World Cup and were claimed by the Shebab.

Source: AFP