In August 2010, Puntland security forces launched an offensive against militants led by Mohamed Said Atom, an arms-smuggler on both US and U.N. security watch-lists who had vowed war on the Farole administration. The insurgents were reportedly hiding out in the Galgala hills. Atom had fled just before the attack that left more than 100 militants dead, having reportedly misled his men prior to the Puntland army's offensive by promising reinforcements from the Islamist Al-Shabaab group via the town of Burao in the Somaliland region.[25]