The five button men, from the Islamist al-Shabaab
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Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...bully boy group, were dressed in intelligence service uniforms and did not draw suspicion as they entered the hotel in the centre of the Somali capital after a truck bomb demolished a well-defended front entrance.
The button men then held off security forces for more than 12 hours, and went room to room shooting guests. A senior regional minister and a mother with her three young children whom the attackers believed were his family were among the dead.
"They had ID cards which had clear information such as names, ranks and photos so no police officer could stop them," said a senior intelligence officer, Col Ahmed Yare.
Al-Shabaab grabbed credit on one of its websites 55 minutes after the initial bombing of the hotel. Sheikh Ali Mohammed, a religious holy man who survived the attack on the hotel saw the attackers kill the woman and children.