... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting...
between local government troops and gunnies has left at least nine people dead in the autonomous region of Puntland in northeastern Somalia.
Al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
gunnies attacked a checkpoint manned by soldiers of Puntland's government on Friday night, and fighting continued until the crack of dawn on Saturday.
"We first attacked their checkpoint near Bosasso
...Puntland's major (maybe only) port, population about 250,000, most of them shady characters who hang around waterfront dives and carry knives and brass knuckles...
last night. Then this morning they attacked us at Baliqadar, 40 kilometers (24 miles) to the east of Bosasso. We also burnt three of their armed vehicles using landmines," al-Shabaab military front man Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab said.
He also claimed that al-Shabaab gunnies had killed 32 Puntland soldiers, and three of their own fighters had bit the dust in the battle.
However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go...
local officials reported a lower corpse count.
"We received nine dead people and six others were maimed. These include five dead bodies of al-Shabaab and three other injured ones, who are being kept in the hospital by police," Abdiqadir Mohamud, a doctor at Bosasso Hospital, said.
In January 2011, Puntland's authorities issued a statement announcing that they had broken with the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) based in Mogadishu.
In the statement, the Puntland government said that the TFG "does not represent Puntland in international forums" and that the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
Political Office for Somalia should "reconsider its position and support for the TFG at the expense of other Somali stakeholders."