Hiiraan Online
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
The port city of Bassaso, Somalia
BOSSASO (HOL) - Dozens of Al-Shabab fighters armed with guns, grenades and bombs have attacked a prison in the Puntland's port city of Bossaso on Tuesday night, killing one soldier, officials said.
The attack in the region's commercial hub targeted Balade prison on the outskirts of the city which holds convicted criminals serving their sentences.
The overnight attack, the second one carried out by fighters in Bossaso which largely remained calm during Somalia's civil war raises concerns about militants growing threat to the region's government. In November last year, armed militants have attacked the city's central police station, one of the rare attacks the group carried out in Bossaso.
Puntland is fighting Al-Shabab fighters in the mountainous Galgala town which changed hands for the past few years. Al-Shabab is fighting to set up a key base in the strategic town that can provide safe haven for the group's fighters often targeted by aerial attacks, mostly by the US forces.
The latest attack comes few hours after a senior Puntland official has survived a roadside bomb attack in the central Somali town of Galkayo.