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The Islamic State group claimed for the first time the responsibility for a clash between insurgents in northern Mozambique, according to SITE Intelligence, which monitors the activities of jihadists around the world.
An Islamist insurgency has been developing in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado since 2017, killing more than 200 people and burning many villages.
An Islamic state issued a statement late Tuesday stating its involvement in an alleged shootout with the Mozambican army in Cabo Delgado province, although an insurgency expert has expressed reservations about this badertion.
"The soldiers of the caliphate were able to repel the attack by the Mozambican army in the village of Metubi, in the region of Mocimboa," the statement said, according to a translation of the SITE.
"They clashed with various weapons, killing and injuring a number of them.
"The mujahideen captured weapons, ammunition and rockets."
The government and the Mozambican military decide to confirm any rebel activity.
Insurgents routinely attack villages, kill locals – sometimes by beheading them – and set houses on fire despite a strong police and military presence in the northern province.
An insurgency expert who declined to be named said it was unlikely that an Islamic state would have direct contact with local fighters.
He added that the alleged attack on Monday had not been reported locally and that the village of Metubi was not in the district of Mocimboa da Praia.
"The Islamic State is not in Mozambique – it's just propaganda, but they could have links," said the expert.
Islamist fighters have targeted isolated communities in the gas-rich and Muslim-majority Cabo Delgado province since October 2017.
"The country is a victim and we must all understand the real reasons," said President Filipe Nyusi last month in an interview with the private newspaper Cbad de Mocambique.
According to local sources, 16 people were killed in an ambush on a highway on May 31, the largest number of insurgent deaths.
The attackers threw homemade explosives into a truck – a new tactic – and opened fire.
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