The war against Islamic State in Somalia
Carolyn Van Houten
The Washington Post
The dead Islamic State fighter was sprawled out on the ridge, bloodstains darkening in the sun, as a line of heavily armed Somali soldiers snaked down the mountainside to a fortified cave — their camouflage uniforms marking a new front line in the fight against the global terrorist group.
The Somali branch has become Islamic State’s new operational and financial hub, according to U.S. Africa Command (Africom), and local officials estimate there are as many as 1,000 militants under its command. Large numbers of foreign fighters have flowed into Somalia, establishing a formidable force that now threatens Western targets. The group has also become a key source of funding for other Islamic State affiliates around the world. According to U.N. investigators, these groups have killed thousands of people, including U.S. soldiers.
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The task of containing this growing threat has fallen to Puntland, a remote, semi-autonomous region in one of the world’s poorest and weakest nations. Puntland’s soldiers are now locked in a grinding fight — one with major international implications, but without Western support.
Washington Post staff photographer Carolyn Van Houten and Nairobi correspondent Katharine Houreld traveled to Somalia in January, touring the ever-expanding battlefield in Puntland, including the recently discovered caves where the Islamic State fighters took shelter. They spoke to imprisoned deserters who said they were forced to join the group, interviewed Somali and U.S. officials, and reviewed evidence collected from captured phones and drones. What emerged is the most complete account to date of how the Islamic State was able to regroup here over the past decade after losing its self-declared caliphate in the Middle East.
For decades, Washington has sought to prop up the government in Mogadishu, but Somalia remains a fractured state. Political divisions have hampered the fight to claw back swaths of the south from the al-Qaeda-aligned militant group al-Shabab and, more recently, allowed Islamic State to establish a foothold in the north.
Islamic State in Somalia broke away from al-Shabab in 2015. According to the U.S. military, its secretive, henna-bearded leader, Abdulqadir Mumin, is now Islamic State’s global caliph. Unlike its rivals in al-Shabab, Islamic State has not focused on conquering territory in Somalia; its aspirations are larger. Burrowed into the Miskad mountains, on the very tip of the Horn of Africa, it has built an international terrorism hub.
The new military offensive — planned for months and launched on January 2 — was delayed while Puntland tried to negotiate support from international partners, including the United States.
Van Houten photographed the aftermath of the military offensive. She met foreign fighters who joined Islamic State and were captured by the Puntland forces, and she travelled with the latter as they toured recently captured positions, bringing back an unprecedented glimpse of the front lines.
Katharine Houreld / The Washington Post
