Somali Islamists seize briefly Puntland town

MOGADISHU, Somalia - at least 25 people were killed Wednesday, when hundreds of Islamist insurgent fighters captured briefly a city in a northern region of Somalia which is usually relatively calm, an official said.

Islamists temporarily seized the city of Gal Gala, which is 25 miles (40 km) southwest of the port of Bosasso, the commercial centre of the Northern semi-autonomous region of Puntland, said the Puntland security Minister, GEN Yusuf Ahmed Khayr. He said control of the Government found the city.

Puntland is relatively quiet compared to workers in Somalia and assistance Centre-South foreign and businessmen are usually able to operate. This is the first attack of this magnitude, in Puntland this year although the region has battled Islamic militants in the mountainous region last year.

Khayr said five soldiers were killed in the attack in the morning on the city. Another official said earlier that nine were killed. He requested anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the press. The reason for this discrepancy was not immediately clear.

Both agreed six insurgents were killed during the initial when Islamist attack in an ambush a Government patrol firing grenades rocket propelled to their vehicles. But Government forces have launched a counterattack and killed fourteen insurgents more when they returned to the city, Khayr said.

It was impossible to verify if its account because the mobile network of the city was not working.

The insurgents are led by Sheik Ali impetuous, linked to the Mohamed Atom arms dealer, who criticized the United Nations to provide weapons to the al-Shabab militia in the South of Somalia. The city used to be a basis for the fighters of the atom.

Impetuous was a member of al-Itihad, an Islamist group active in Somalia in the 1990s. The Puntland police arrested him last year, but he was later released on bail.

Somalia has not had a Government for more than 20 years. The current phase of the civil war of the pits of the Islamist insurgents against a weak United Nations-backed Government, but the conflict is complicated by clan loyalty, corruption and the involvement of the regional rivals, Ethiopia and Eritrea.