Seven jihadists slain, one captured — but survivors melt into the mountains as Puntland vows revenge.
Puntland’s counter-terror blitz wiped out the ISIS unit that assassinated Brig. Gen. Qalyare, in a dramatic Calmiskaad raid that signals both vengeance and the unrelenting danger of landmine warfare.
The killers of Brig. Gen. Qalyare didn’t last long. Puntland’s Dervish forces stormed the Calmiskaad mountains this weekend, unleashing Operation Hillaac in a lightning strike that left seven ISIS militants dead and one dragged out in chains.
It was payback. Qalyare, the no-nonsense commander of the Dervishes’ 2nd Brigade, was torn apart last week when a landmine ripped through his convoy. ISIS boasted. Puntland swore revenge. This raid delivered the answer.
Gen. Mahmoud Faadhig, the operation’s battle-hardened spokesman, said the cell was hunted down 60 kilometers from the ambush site. “The battle was intense — but they were destroyed,” he declared, confirming that three militants slipped away and are now being hunted across the cliffs and caves.
But Puntland also paid a price. One soldier fell in the firefight and three were wounded. “We bleed, but we do not break,” a senior officer told WARYATV after the operation.
For ISIS in Puntland, the mine remains their deadliest weapon. Laying explosives has become their signature move — cheap, ruthless, and devastating. Gen. Faadhig admitted as much: “The mine is their main tactic.”
The bodies of the slain fighters are expected to be displayed in Garowe on Monday, a brutal reminder that vengeance comes quickly in Puntland’s war on terror.
Yet the war itself is far from finished. The Calmiskaad range — jagged, lawless, carved with hidden passes — still shelters pockets of jihadists who know the terrain better than anyone. Today’s victory will rattle them, but it won’t erase them.
For Puntland, this was about more than revenge. It was about proving that no attack, not even the assassination of a general, goes unanswered.
The mountains will burn until every fighter is flushed out — that is the message Puntland is sending to ISIS and to the Horn of Africa.
