In a 2013 speech claiming victory over jihadists in Mali who had seized the north a year earlier, French President Francois Hollande said had it not been for his nation's military intervention, "today we would have terrorists here in Bamako". Two years on a rhetorical flourish meant to evoke a fearful but unthinkable scenario has come true as jihadists seeking new havens and bigger targets have spread south from Saharan bases into formerly stable capital cities.Since November al-Qaeda fighters have twice stormed hotels in the Malian and Burkinabe capitals, killing dozens of Westerners with increasing sophistication.Assailants in Ouagadougou planted explosives to slow rescuers and sent an apparently live audio message from the scene entitled: "Message Signed with Blood and Body Parts".The remote deserts and savannahs of the French-speaking west and central Africa, once a playground for hikers, motorists and lion hunters, have been effectively out of bounds for Westerners for years because of kidnapping risks. But plush hotels in big cities were considered safe.Often they lodge officials trying to fix the problems of the Sahel.Burkina Faso's Splendid Hotel, where at least 29 people, including foreigners, were killed on Friday night, is popular with French troops, and Mali's Radisson Blu hosted a team trying to implement a flagging UN-brokered peace deal there.But, despite billions of Western dollars spent on aid, peacekeeping and counter-terrorism, the no-go zones on French consular maps have bled southwards from a stronghold in north Mali and into Burkina Faso. Analysts warn that weak border control could mean more strikes should be expected. "There's no reason to think Burkina Faso should be the last country hit," said Cynthia Ohayon, a west Africa analyst at the International Crisis Group in Ouagadougu."If you strike the capital, you are seen to be striking harder and the threat is there for other cities like Dakar and Abidjan," she said, referring to Senegal and Ivory Coast.France says its 3500-strong Operation Barkhane Force has made progress, conducting 150 operations last year.But Ohayon warned France might have contributed to the spread of jihadists by driving them out of their former heartland in Mali's desert north and into Burkina Faso.Security sources say the rise in Western abductions may represent a bid by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim) to replenish coffers with ransom money.Aqim has named three gunmen who it said carried out Friday night's attack in the Burkina Faso capital as Battar al-Ansari, Abu Muhammad al-Buqali al-Ansari and Ahmed al-Fulani al-Ansari.Burkinabe troops fanned out across Ouagadougou yesterday as visiting Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi pledged that west African nations would fight back against a mounting terrorist threat.Widow takes on twitterTwitter is being sued by the widow of a US man killed in Jordan. She has accused the social media company of giving a voice to Islamic State.Tamara Fields, a Florida woman whose husband, Lloyd, died in the November 9 attack on the police training centre in Amman, said Twitter knowingly let the militant Islamist group use its network to spread propaganda, raise money and attract recruits.Lawyers specialising in terrorism said Fields faced an uphill battle, but the case could lead to more calls for social media firms to remove posts about terrorist groups...