Puntland army chief General
Saed Mohamed Hirsi warned: "If Puntland is not helped to fight terrorism,
there will be a breeding ground for terror here that will spread to the rest of
the world."
Islamic State is relying
more heavily on child soldiers as growing numbers of fighters desert the group.
Some, aged between 10 and
15, were captured during an IS attack by sea and are being held in prison in
the Puntland capital of Garowe.
The youngest boy described
what happened to him when he tried to escape the terror group.
A British Islamic State
leader has set up a base in Somalia to extend its influence in the Horn of
Africa for the first time.
Somali commanders have
urged the international community to help crush the operation, amid growing
fears he may have forged connections with some in the large UK Somali diaspora.
Somali soldiers stormed the
house in the village of Galgala which saw the Briton - Abdul Nadir Mumin, a UK
passport-holder who lived in south London and still has links in the country -
flee the area into the mountains, but not before recruiting and indoctrinating
fighters.
He and his supporters have
pledged allegiance to IS, having split from Somalia's al Shabaab terror group.
The jihadists left a trail
of destruction before they fled - burning and trashing homes and terrifying
residents.
Female survivors spoke of
regular beatings and abuse for not covering themselves up enough.
He said: "They tied me
on a tree for a day and a night ... they used a whip to cane me."
Another said: "I don't
know the name of the group I was fighting for ... they just told us we would go
to heaven."
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