Somaliland: Locals Resist Somaliland Troops, Radio Reporter Jailed

LAS Locals in northern Somalia's Sool region took up arms against soldiers from the separatist government of Somaliland after the soldiers entered the town of Lasadar, reliable sources reported Monday.
One local civilian was wounded in the firefight between armed villagers and the Somaliland security forces.

A Somaliland military source from Sool region confirmed to Garowe Online that the Somaliland unit returned from Lasadar town after facing armed resistance from locals.
He declined to mention any casualties suffered by the Somaliland forces.

Somaliland troops and allied clan militias captured the provincial capital of Sool, Las Anod, in October after rival troops from the neighboring semiautonomous region of Puntland withdrew.
The self-declared republic of Somaliland has since been trying to expand its control over Sool, with neighboring Puntland threatening a counterattack to regain control of Las Anod.

In a signed declaration, a congregation of influential clan elders from Sool region called on Somaliland to withdraw its security forces from Las Anod or take "full responsibility" of anything that happens as a direct result of Somaliland's armed presence.
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In Hargeisa, seat of the Somaliland administration, politicians from Sool region dismissed the clan elders' declaration as "one-sided" and threatened to arrest the elders upon their return to Las Anod.

In related news, a radio reporter in Las Anod was arrested by Somaliland police on Monday for yet-undisclosed reasons.

Abdiqani Hassan Farah, a reporter for the independent Radio Las Anod, was arrested as he was performing his normal journalist duties.

Somaliland's officials in Las Anod have issued threats to local media, including radio stations and websites, according to media sources in the town.

Sool region falls within the borders of the ex-British Protectorate of Somaliland, a colonial territory that united with ex-Italian Somalia in July 1960 to form the independent Somali Republic.

But local leaders, including clan chiefs, argue that they only recognize "clan borders" and not arbitary boundaries erected by European colonizers during the 19th century.

Source: Garowe