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Badhan,(insidesomalia.org)-Media reports that Somali soldiers from the country's breakaway republic of Somaliland have captured a key town in the disputed region of Sanaag are "untrue," the leader of the rival sub-state of Puntland said Monday.
Gen. Mohamud "Adde" Muse, the president of Puntland, told reporter that Puntland security forces are in "full control of Badhan," a town in the eastern part of Sanaag.
President Muse said the people of Puntland "are not aware of the conspiracies" against them without elaborating.
He linked Somaliland's armed incursions into regions claimed by Puntland as part of a grand conspiracy to unseat Somalia's UN-backed transitional federal government, which is led by former Puntland strongman, Col. Abdullahi Yusuf.
The Puntland president was visiting East Africa University in the port city of Bossaso, 1500km north of the national capital Mogadishu.
The university has begun constructing a new building, which will house the college of health, according to EAU administrators.
Local sources confirmed that Somaliland Minister for Fisheries and Marine Resources, Ali "Qorsef" Mohamed, arrived in Badhan under armed escort overnight Sunday but "stayed briefly" inside the town.
As of Monday, the town of Badhan was "empty of soldiers," although the Somaliland force withdrew to the outskirts of town and was reportedly facing off local fighters, sources said.
No fighting has been reported in or around Badhan so far, but locals are worried that fighting could break out unless immediate measures are taken to ease hostilities.
Since 2002, Somaliland and Puntland have fought bitterly several times over control of Sool and Sanaag regions, which Somaliland's separatist leaders claim in their bid for independence.
But Puntland government officials have continuously maintained that clan loyalties with the disputed regions supersede nonexistent colonial borders and have warned about all-out clan war.
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