Several alleged senior Islamic State officials in northern Somalia arrested

June 27 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The authorities of the Somali semi-autonomous region of Puntland (north) have announced the arrest of several alleged senior officials of the country’s branch of the Islamic State, a splinter of the terrorist group Al Shabaab, in the context of operations against the jihadist formation.

The suspects have been detained by Puntland security forces in the town of Amano, located in the Bari region, where they were allegedly planning attacks, according to the Somali news portal Garowe Online. Islamic State has focused its operations in Somalia in the Puntland region.

The regional police have identified one of the detainees as Mohamed Ibrahim Daha, a Sudanese national and responsible for coordinating several attacks, without any details having been released about another detainee, who was supposedly a Syrian national.

The Somali branch of Islamic State emerged in October 2015 after a group of al Shabaab militants split from the al Qaeda-linked group. Despite the fact that Mumin swore allegiance to the then leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, he did not respond or name him as the person in charge of the branch of the extremist formation in the country.