Saturday, July 21, 2012
A government official in Somalia says security forces have seized a boat carrying weapons that were being smuggled from al-Qaida militants in Yemen to fighters in Somalia. Said Mohamed Rage, the minister for ports and anti-piracy efforts of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, said Saturday that security forces seized the boat along with a Yemeni man Friday.
Rage said the boat was carrying explosives, switches, rockets, guns, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades. Rage said the cargo was to be smuggled to radical Islamist al-Shabab fighters in southern Somalia.
Al-Qaida and al-Shabab — Somalia's most powerful militant group — announced a merger earlier this year.
Puntland fears that al-Qaida-linked violence in Yemen — which lies to the north just across the Gulf of Aden — will spill over into northeastern Somalia.