Somalia residents say they have found three decapitated bodies just days after Islamic State group-linked fighters abducted nine people.
Hassan Adan, an elder in Qandala town in the semiautonomous state of Puntland, says the bodies found along a road near the town showed signs of torture.
Puntland officials were not immediately available for comment.
Heavily armed fighters on Saturday stopped a truck carrying nearly two dozen passengers about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Qandala and abducted nine people.
The abducted included off-duty soldiers returning from areas where troops are battling the IS-linked fighters who had briefly captured Qandala.
It was not immediately clear if the decapitated bodies were those of soldiers.
Somalia's homegrown al-Shabab extremist group sees the IS-linked group as a threat to its operations in this long-chaotic nation.
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