Image: This pick-up truck WAS NOT the vehicle used in the attack but if it turns out that a pick-up was used it is quite likely it was one like this. They are popular as jump-on jump-off taxis in several of the Sinai resorts. BREAKING NEWS 11am 8 October 2004 "ISLAMIC UNITY BROTHERS" - AN OFFSHOOT OF AL QAEDA - HAVE USED FOUR SUICIDE BOMBERS TO ATTACK THE 430 ROOM TABA HILTON AND A REED HUT BACKPACKER ENCAMPMENT AT RAS SHATAN - "DEVIL'S HEAD" - NEAR NUWEIBA. THE DEATH TOLL - MOSTLY AT TABA'S HILTON - ALREADY 27 - IS LIKELY TO CLIMB TO OVER 50. AN ISLAMIC WEBSITE CLAIMING RESPONSIBILITY LABELLED THE RESORTS DENS OF PROSTITUTION. THE LANGUAGE OF THEIR CLAIM USING THE EXPRESSION "MARTYDOM SEEKING BROTHERS" WAS VERY SIMILAR TO THAT USED BY AL QAEDA TERRORISTS EARLIER IN IRAQ - In 2002 sex workers were arrested in Taba following complaints that alleged Eastern European "sex workers" had been allowed to operate uninhindered. See our report May 2002. This may explain why the Islamist website referred to Taba and Nuweiba as "dens of prostitution and corruption." For such a co-ordinated attack it seems likely that planning musthave been underway soon after the assassination of Sheikh Yassin. It is possible that the attack was supposed to take place on 6 October - the 21st anniversary of the October War - but that some unforseen event delayed the attack. Two blasts (one from a suicide vehicle at the lobby and one from a suicide bomber at the pool) rocked the Taba Hilton while another two blasts hit the relatively remote resort of Ras Shatan. Several news agencies are claiming a blast at Ras al Sultan but we can't find such a location on the map. We are assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that the blast was actually at Ras Shatan. One or two news agencies mention Ras Shitan (presumably meaning Ras Shatan which is a normally quiet spot by the beach near Nuweiba ) Since December 2002 GayEgypt.com has posted a special warning regarding the vulnerability of the Sinai in particular to terrorist attacks. This is largely due to the fact that the layout of these hotels tend to be more spread out and vulnerable than elsewhere in Egypt, also due to the surrounding mountainous terrain, the sympathy of a considerable minority of Sinai's population to Al Qaeda, the number of poorly regulated incoming ferries and the number of visiting Israeli tourists. We fear the explosion may have been caused by a driver of a toyota pick-up truck. Not because anyone has yet reported this but because pick-up trucks are not only a favourite of Al-Qaeda but, unlike elsewhere in Egypt, they are extremely common in the Sinai resorts where they are used as jump-on jump-off taxis. So such a pick-up would not only be capable of carrying a massive explosive device but would be able to approach close to a hotel without attracting any undue attention. In this instance it appears the explosion at the Hilton in Taba has been massive as a large part of the hotel is said to have collapsed around the lobby area. Some reports claim the car, truck or pick-up crashed through the lobby first but others that the vehicle exploded while still some 100 metres away. Around 800 to 1000 Israelis were staying at the hotel at the time. Below we reprint word for word the warning we posted in December 2002 explaining why the Sinai in particular should be considered more vulnerable than other areas of Egypt to terrorism. WARNING: IMMINENT THREAT TO RED SEA RESORTS. Posted 3 December 2002 News leeked out yesterday that on Saturday [ 30 November ] the US Ambassador, David Welsh, was trapped in a gunfight between would be assassins and Egyptian security forces. The incident is believed to have occured at a petrol station near the mining of town of Abu Zneima on the western coast of Sinai. The American Ambassador had been on route from Sharm El-Sheikh* to Suez protected by an escort of Egyptian police. The convoy was apparently shadowed by a four wheel-drive Toyota pick-up truck which lacked any number plate. It failed to overtake the rear police vehicle in the convoy in its' attempt to close on the Ambassador's car. Then, suddenly, the convoy made a [presumably unscheduled] stop at a petrol station, possibly in an attempt to challenge and neutralize the threat from the vehicle. A gunfight erupted before the pick-up escaped. The area is highly mountainous and contains many difficult wadi routes which could have been used by the Ambassador's attackers in their escape. It would have required both suitable vehicles and also local bedouin knowledge to have successfully pursued the men. Neither was immediately available. Indeed the Bedouin have a closer afinity to Saudi Arabs, especially those of the Hejaz, than they do to the remote and disliked Egyptian government. It would certainly not be difficult for Al-Qaida or other Islamic terrorists to find refuge here. Following the attack, Egyptian security forces would have immediately stepped up checks on all exits from Sinai, especially at the Ahmed Hamdi tunnel, under the Suez Canal, and at Nuweiba from where rust-bucket passenger ferries head for Aqaba in Jordan. Considerable concern must be mounting about Egypt's porous frontiers. If the attackers came from outside Egypt it wouldn't have been necessary for them to fly in. They probably used easier less secure access ports. The daily, often overcrowded, passenger ferries from Jeddah to Suez would be an obvious choice. Checks here are likely to have been perfunctory at best. But of more immediate concern, must be the threat these men may now pose to the exposed Red Sea tourist resorts. The terrorists may find it difficult to escape from the Sinai, a mountainous peninsular virtually surrounded by sea, which has only a limited number of exit routes. Now cornered, they may chose to target European or Israeli tourists who will be flooding into Sinai for Christmas and the New Year. Many of the modern hotels in Sinai are far more vunerable to terrorist attack than the towering single entrance hotel blocks in Cairo. Many of the Sinai hotels sprawl out over a huge area. Typically the bigger resorts may have hundreds of chalets, each with their own door, adjacent zig-zagging pathways running besides streams, fountains and man-made beaches. If it is easy for elderly white gay tourists with their far younger and darker Egyptian boyfriends to evade hotel security, how much easier it must be for unauthorized Egyptians or other Arabs to get inside such tourist enclaves. Additionally, Dahab could prove a highly tempting honey pot to any trapped terrorist cell. Hundreds of budget hotels and even less secure campsites cover almost two square miles around the now barely recognisable original bedouin village of Asilah. Pick-up trucks, similar to the one used on the failed attack on the American Ambassador, serve as the main type of local taxi for tourists travelling around Dahab. They are often full of backpackers and late night partygoers. So there will obviously be serious concern that the small town might all too tragically become a "Bali by the Red Sea." Of perhaps even greater concern to Egyptian security must be the large number of Israeli visitors to the Sinai resorts of Taba, Nuweiba and Dahab, especially after the recent attack on the Paradise Hotel in Mombassa, Kenya. *It is has not yet been explained why the US Ambassador had been in Sharm El-Sheikh. Limited US forces are stationed in Sinai, but they form part of multi-national contingent in the north near the Israeli border, over two hundred miles from the resort. Possibly, he had been taking a brief holiday or perhaps the visit was for some other as yet undisclosed purpose which might explain the US Embassy's reluctance to bring attention to the incident. DID TERRORISTS GET IN ON THE FERRY FROM AQABA ? Immigration control on this rust-bucket boat was very haphazard when I travelled on it just a few years ago so I hope it's improved since then. Passports were gathered from passengers and were not checked until later. Finally, everyone was summoned to one area where names were read out for people to pick up their passports from a large pile on a table but it was extremely chaotic with many passengers picking up the wrong passports. Latest news 22 May 2012: Cairo psychiatrist claims he can "cure" 70 to 75 per cent of gay teenagers.