Gunmen open fire in Hurgarda

[Horus]

Sky news is reporting that gunmen have opened fire at an entrance to an hotel used by foreign tourists in Hurgarda, another nail

[Jayway]

Cairo, now Hurgada - and people tell me its perfectly safe to be a tourist in Egypt . HA HA HA

[Horus]

Yes Jay but we have yet to have the Egyptian version that will say it was fireworks or a car back firing

[Horus]

It was at the Bella Vista Hotel, two foreign tourists injured, two gunmen shot

[LovelyLadyLux]

Have been out all morning, just got home, checked computer and "Yup" the latest headlines is ISIS attacks tourists in hotel in Hurghada. Sad and am sure the tide of global public sentiment is going against ISIS BIG TIME! To date while there has been some outcry there hasn't really been a plan to deal with them - 'cept for maybe Vladimir Putin and from what I've read I think he is doing that which is necessary. I'm sorry if civilians are killed. Price of war which is always a tragedy but otherwise we might as all well start checking into the price of camels.

The report here:

CAIRO, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Two assailants armed with a gun, a knife and a suicide belt attacked a hotel in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Hurghada on Friday, wounding two foreign tourists, security sources said.


One of the injured was from Denmark and the other from Germany, the sources said. .

They said the attackers had arrived by sea to launch the onslaught on the beachside Bella Vista Hotel, but that security forces had repelled the assault, killing the attacker wearing the suicide bomb.

However, the Interior Ministry gave a very different account, saying two assailants with knives had wounded two Austrians and a Swede. It said one of the attackers was a student from the Cairo suburb of Giza.

Egypt is fighting a wave of Islamist militancy, which began as attacks on security forces in remote regions of the Sinai, but is increasingly focusing on targets previously considered safe such as the tourist resorts on the Red Sea.

The Islamic State militant group said on Friday that an attack on Israeli tourists in Cairo on Thursday had been carried out by its fighters, in response to a call by the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to target Jews "everywhere."

Security sources said those tourists were Israeli Arabs. None was hurt and Egyptian authorities said the attack was aimed at security forces.

On Oct. 31, a Russian passenger plane crashed in Sinai, killing all 224 people on board, most of them tourists returning home from the Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh.

Cairo says it has found no evidence of terrorism in the crash, but Russia and Western governments have said the airliner was probably brought down by a bomb, and Islamic State said it had smuggled explosives on board.

Tourism is critical to the Egyptian economy as a source of hard currency, but has been ravaged by years of political turmoil since the revolution that ousted veteran president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

[Horus]

IS = Infantry of Satan

[LovelyLadyLux]

Mark my words or mark 'our' words a major attack sooner or later is going to happen in one of the big resort areas. Just a matter of time.

Am sure all the Egyptian soldiers are out there doing everything they can as the country has it's fingernails gripped on the edge of a steep cliff but it is slowly sliding and isn't going to be able to get a foothold anywhere to stop the slippery slope.

The coffin is almost nailed shut and it isn't going to take much more for tourism to die and evaporate altogether. People who are looking for holidays aren't stupid. They don't have their heads buried in the sand and they do listen to the news (hard NOT to hear about the terrorist attacks) so while you might get the gomless stupid person who never reads arriving at a "destination" that is about all. I'd imagine airlines aren't jumping at the chance to have one of their airplanes blown out of the air either and hotels aren't going to stay open full of empty rooms.

Regardless of what the Luxor Expats say - it is just a matter of time. I definitely hope they're prepared as again I can see any number of them being grabbed in a souk there and subjected to who knows what!

None of our elected officials acted strongly enough to STOP Daesh, Germany and the EU opened the door to Migrants and now WE are all going to have to pay the price.

[Horus]

That just about summs things up LLL, from here on it can only get worse.

[Horus]

I see that the ostriches are alive and well and living in Egypt. When you are a tourist sitting in a restaurant, bar, coach or visiting an attraction and you are either shot at, blown up, stabbed or injured or killed, then you do not really care if the perpetrator was a terrorist or not. Neither do you care that more shootings take place in Islington in London or the Bronx in New York, most holidaymakers are not choosing those places to go on holiday or even to live there, so why make such a stupid comparison? If you are killed or injured, it makes little difference to you whether it was a terrorist attack or a local feud, it is the result that counts and not the perpetrators motives. Reading some posts elsewhere you could be excused in thinking that some people seem to think it doesn’t matter if it was not terror related, an attack is an attack whether or not you were the intended victim or what the attackers motives were. So basically if you are shot, stabbed or blown up by a terrorists, its “Oh dear this will damage tourism” but if it is the local nutters involved in a feud or just disenchanted with the government in some way, then according to some that is OK because it was not terrorist related, so why are people making a big deal over it? The more I see of the expats living in Egypt the more stupid they appear to be, they now seem to have two distinctions to being killed or maimed, one is killed by terrorists = “bad for tourism” and two killed by any other means whilst on holiday = “well these things happen elsewhere” Well yes they may do, but who knowingly puts themselves into that sort of situation for a holiday? but reading some posts they seem to think it is all part of the holiday, so carry on as usual. I would not go to a crap hole like Islington or the Bronx by choice to start with, so why am I supposed to be reassured by these ridiculous comparisons in crime figures? No doubt the reason we get these comments is that those concerned have vested interests and are fearful of their own financial situation or are trapped in property that they can no longer sell, or are financially incapable of moving elsewhere.

[Robbo70]

A lot of people defending it, have business interests and need to keep peddling the safe routine. I will still be going to Luxor at the end of Feb, as Omar needs to see his family. I will stay in the police hotel again, which in one way could be more of a target, but in another...everyone around the pool has a gun in their pool bag I accept I wont feel safe, and I will still potter about, but as I am usually found at Egyptian coffee shops rather than tourist spots, I can only hope for a peaceful event free break.

[Horus]

I am sure you will have a safe visit Robbo as with most things the chance of anything happening is quite small for any one individual
What really does my head in is the way that some just dismiss it as being in some way acceptible because it was only a feud, or bang on about mis reporting of facts because they could not see any flags or a suicide belt in the pictures, as if that makes it OK then! The fact still remains however these apologists try to dress it up is that innocent people are being attacked, pure and simple and to try and down play it as they are is ridiculous. The choice to holiday there is up to the individual and there are many other places I would now deem as unsuitable destinations even in the UK, Islington being one of them. I would expect to get mugged or stabbed in that place, but not sitting on the beach somewhere in Dorset, if that were to happen then I would be crossing that place off my list as well, it is just so pathetic the way some people try to play down what is a major incident no matter who actually did it.

[Horus]

As we are now in the realms of speculation as to what was the motive of the Hurghada attack and in view of some people trying to play it down as just a feud involving knives, let me give you my own speculation which is just as valid as all those making excuses:
If these people were only armed with knives and attacked holidaymakers sitting in a hotel what would be their motive? There are better ways of killing people in an attack than to use knives, but if you are a religious fanatic and you do not care if you die then the reason could be completely different. For example if you have a knife and grab an unsuspecting tourist then hold a knife to their throats you are unlikely to be shot at. It is more likely that you can create a standoff with security forces whilst keeping your hostages, although once you release them you will be killed. So what do you do, well you attract as much attention for your cause as possible with as much media attention as you can get, it may be brief, but if the final act is to slit the throat or even manage to behead your hostage then you have achieved your aim. Knowing Egypt’s reputation for not reporting the true facts we can dismiss most local reports of what has really happened, it will be slanted as much as possible to alleviate a tourist backlash onto being a minor incident where the perpetrators were shot and a few tourists were stabbed, but look behind the attempts to minimise this attack as something minor and the real reasons and intentions will become clearer. I will further speculate that those injured were not just randomly stabbed, but were injured as they resisted being taken or held by one of their attackers.

[LovelyLadyLux]

@Horus - "100% Ditto"

I've never really read so many dismissive excuses in my life. And the excuses are superficial with no substance.

Having worked in Government AND having seen how it operates I would hazard a guess that ALL STAFF in ALL RESORTS have now been well school'd in what to do and what to say in the event of a terrorist attack and dummying everybody up is one of the first priorities. I'd bet that staff have super strict instructions NOT to talk to anybody, NOT to speculate, NOT to say ONE WORD about anything and if you do the consequences would be severe. So IF there is an incident right away the primary source is dried up so the OFFICIAL source can put out that which they want to be heard.

AND

Does Egypt have a motivation to keep tourism going? Geez - if I was a betting person I'd say 'yes'!!! With a HUGE exclamation mark!

As for the Expats the ones that are left are coming with a jaundiced and very slanted point of view. Some are even verbalizing they're MUSLIM (almost as a way to buy themselves some brownie points with the powers that be) yet when the guard is down post they follow no religious protocols which is totally counter to how Islam operates. They'll have to back peddle quickly though so as to keep their online presence intact 'just in case' the powers that be happen to be reading this Forum!

Ostriches the lot that are throwing out all sorts of silly and ill-informed rhetoric and asking "is Luxor safe?" is like asking if the Titanic safe? It is going down and sooner or later going to experience a serious incident. Hope and pray not but in this day and age where jihadi terrorists are coming out of the woodwork who can say?

If you're going to Egypt then go but 'at least' recognize there needs to be a heightened awareness. Personally I'd avoid any of the high time popular places as those are the target sites most apt to be targeted. A terrorist wants the most bang for the buck so hitting a local coffee shop isn't quite cutting it however charging into a big resort with tourists in a tourist city does get them attention.

And lastly some jihadi terrorists are more organized, thoughtful and successful than others. The two in San Bernadino California that killed 14 were quite organized whist the gun toting single man in Philadelphia yesterday who shot the Police officer didn't seem too thought out at all. His impact was minimal but he is still pledging allegiance to the Islamic state. Same/same with these guys right now in Hurghada. Not all terrorists are going to fly planes into skyscrapers. These ones in Hurghada might have operated as fully as they were capable of operating.

Bottom line is people in a resort were attacked via weapons in broad daylight. THAT alone constitutes TERROR and I don't see how this can be mitigated.