MOGADISHU, Somalia: A government official in Somalia says security forces have seized a boat carrying weapons that were being smuggled from Al-Qaeda 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 yesterday 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-Qaeda and Al-Shabab — Somalia’s most powerful militant group — announced a merger earlier this year.
Puntland fears that Al-Qaeda-linked violence in Yemen — which lies to the north just across the Gulf of Aden — will spill over into northeastern Somalia.
Somalia seizes weapons said to be from Al-Qaeda
