Fresh fighting broke out in the troubled Las Anod city on Saturday morning, eyewitnesses said.
The fighting flared up after heavily armed Somaliland forces attacked the town from two directions, Abshir Abdiaziz, a local elder.
According to videos that surfaced on social media, Somaliland claimed to have defeated the locals in Las-Anod and displayed several prisoners reportedly captured during the fighting.
Among the prisoners displayed is former Puntland MP, Farah Mohamed Dalmar.
The fighting is still ongoing on the outskirts of Las-Anod town.
Since February 6, there has been heavy fighting in the northern Somali city of Las Anod between troops of Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland and local militia from the Dhulbahante clan in northern Somalia.
Somaliland claims the borders of the old British Somaliland protectorate which merged with what was known as Italian Somaliland in the 1960s to form Somalia.
In 1991, after clan militias overthrew Siad Barre, Somalia’s military ruler at the time, the country descended into prolonged conflict, and Somaliland proclaimed its secession.
Before 2007, when Somaliland seized Las Anod, it was administered by Puntland.
