MOGADISHU — Puntland State security forces have destroyed more than 100 Islamic State (ISIS) bases in the Cal-Miskaad mountains during a yearlong sweep that has sharply degraded the group’s capabilities, the region’s police chief said Thursday.
Police Commander Gen. Mumin Abdi Shire, speaking one year after Puntland State launched Operation Hilaac, said the offensive has eliminated key fighters and reduced ISIS’s military capacity by nearly 85 percent. He said weapons caches, supply depots and facilities used to manufacture explosives and plan attacks were also dismantled across the rugged highlands of the Bari region in northeastern Somalia.
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Shire said the force dismantled what he described as the group’s most dangerous technological and chemical center, a hub he said had hosted foreign specialists linked to technical attack operations. He said “friendly countries” provided technological and intelligence support that proved critical to the operation’s success, without naming the partners.
The police chief said the sustained operations have significantly weakened ISIS’s ability to intimidate civilians and mount complex attacks from its mountain hideouts. He did not provide casualty figures or specify how many fighters were neutralized or detained during the campaign.
Operation Hilaac, launched in late 2024, targets ISIS and al-Shabaab militants entrenched along the Cal-Miskaad range and across the wider Bari region, an area whose difficult terrain has long offered cover for armed groups. Puntland State authorities say the campaign has combined ground raids with intelligence-led strikes on logistics, bombmaking and command nodes.
Independent verification of the claims was not immediately available. Puntland State officials did not release imagery or documentation of the destroyed sites, though Shire said the operational tempo would continue until remaining insurgent cells are dismantled.
The announcement underscores Puntland State’s effort to pressure ISIS’s Somalia branch, which has maintained a foothold in the northeast despite sustained counterterrorism operations. By emphasizing the removal of bomb factories and technical hubs, authorities framed the gains as aimed at preventing future attacks as much as clearing terrain.
Shire credited intelligence sharing and technology from allied nations with helping Puntland State forces map militant supply lines and locate key facilities in remote areas. He did not identify the countries involved or detail the nature of the assistance.
Authorities did not outline a timeline for the next phase of Operation Hilaac but indicated that security sweeps and stabilization efforts would continue in and around the Cal-Miskaad mountains and along key routes in Bari, where insurgents have historically used rough tracks to move weapons and personnel.
The police chief’s statement marks one of the most forceful public claims by Puntland State to date about weakening ISIS in Somalia’s northeast. If the reported destruction of sanctuaries, equipment and specialized centers is sustained, it could constrain the group’s ability to regenerate forces or conduct complex operations from the region’s hard-to-reach terrain.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
