The disturbing new images show the consequences of a bloody attack by ISIS terrorists in the African country of Mozambique last month.
A photo, published by Sky News on Monday, shows fires burning in the strategic northern city of Palma. Others show sheets and other objects arranged on the ground to delimit “HELP” and “SOS” so that they can be seen by rescue helicopters.
However, others show overturned and damaged cars that appear to have been stalked while their occupants were making desperate attempts to escape.
The BBC reported on Monday, citing the Mozambican army, that Palma had been recaptured and that a “significant” number of terrorists had been killed.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the March 24 attack, according to the extremist monitoring group SITE. Their claim claimed that the Islamic State of Central Africa controls banks in Palmas, government offices, factories and barracks of the army and that more than 55 people, including Mozambican army troops, Christians and foreigners were killed.
Meanwhile, the director of the Dyck advisory group, a private military company hired by Mozambican police to help fight the rebels, described the “street fighting in the pockets of the city.”
“My boys are in the air and have hired several small groups and hired a fairly large group,” Dyck told the Associated Press last week. “They landed in the fight for the recovery of two injured policemen. … We also saved many people who were trapped, lastly, 220 people counted. ”
Dyck added that his fighters described seeing “truck drivers bringing rations to Palma.” Their bodies were next to the trucks. Their heads were stopped. “
Survivors said they saw heavily armed terrorists rushing through the cities, wearing distinctive uniforms and red scarves around their heads.
“I was running to save my life … they were coming from every street,” survivor Luisa Jose, 52, told Reuters. “I saw them with the bazooka.”
Palma, a city of about 70,000 less than 20 miles from the border with Tanzania, is located near an oil and gas production site operated by the French energy company Total. Sky News reported that the facility was handed over to the army, while Total personnel were evacuated from the area.
Cabo Delgado, the province in which Palma is located, has been the focus of the Islamist insurgency since 2017, and observers fear the latest attack is a sign of terrorists’ ambition to spread their insurgency across the country.