MOGADISHU – Somalia’s Islamist militant group al Shabaab claimed to have captured a strategic town, some 100km south of Bosaso in semi-autonomous Puntland region.
The group says its fighters had captured Af Urur town, after the Puntland military forces retreated over unknown reason.
The town is now controlled by al Shabaab, according to policman, Gedhi Afrah Hassan.
Af Urur, a town having major road that links the cities of Garowe, Bosaso and Mogadishu.
Hassan says the group’s fighters seized the town without fighting.
Somalia’s Puntland forces are planning to launch fresh offensive against Al Shabaab, in abid drive them out of the town.
Somalia has been gripped by violence and lawlessness since the toppling of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in the early 1990s.
