MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Hell began at sunset.
It was a Friday evening in Somalia’s capital. The patrons of the Hayat hotel had finished their latest prayers and settled in for coffee, tea or dinner. Families, businesspeople and government workers were there — some of the many who see the promise of their country rebuilding from decades of war.
Hotels are refuges in Mogadishu, but targets, too. The al-Shabab extremist group, affiliated with al Qaeda, for years has carried out complex attacks on them, starting with explosions and holding out for hours as a handful of fighters exchanges gunfire with security forces until a bloody morning end.