Fears of a new Tora Bora in northern Somalia

ERIGAVO, Somalia — A notorious warlord and arms dealer is training Islamist fighters in the remote mountains of northern Somalia and setting up what local officials fear could become a new Tora Bora.
Mohamed Said Atom, one of a handful of men singled out by the UN Security Council as violating an arms embargo on Somalia, has established bases in the Sanaag mountains straddling Puntland and Somaliland, a senior security official said.
The Al Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgent group has been mainly active in southern and central Somalia in recent years, focusing its military efforts on trying to topple the western-backed government in Mogadishu.
But the July 11 bombings in Kampala claimed by the Shebab have signalled the group's expanding reach, and activity by Atom's men in Sanaag has stirred concern that the rebels were now poised to destablise the two breakaway states.
"Atom has links with Al-Qaeda and represents the Shebab in the region," said Colonel Mohamed Jama, a senior security official from the semi-autonomous state of Puntland.
"We are receiving information that he has mobilised hundreds of Islamist militants in the villages around Sanaag Bari," Jama told AFP.Read More