According to Fox News, 60 people died and more than 100 hundred were injured in a blast yesterday at a Marriott hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan. The attack was carried out by a huge truck bomb that ran into the hotel. The massive explosion created severe devastation to the hotel infrastructure and resulted in a fierce scene.

Unfortunately, this was not the first time that a hotel has been targeted by terrorists. In fact, during the new Islamic extremist terror era, hotels are very popular targets. Another major terrorist attack on a hotel occurred on March 28th, 2002, when an explosion was carried out by the Hamas terror activists on the “Park Hotel” in the city of Netanya, Israel. A suicide bomber entered the hotel during the “Seder” meal (a celebration of the Jewish Passover holiday), killing 22 people and injuring 120 people.

Fred Burton and Scott Steward are both editors at the Stratfor company (a leading geopolitical intelligence firm). Both these professionals, who specialize in terrorism, created the the “six-stage attack cycle”, a theory of new soft target selection. This cycle includes target selection, planning, deployment of the attack, explosion, and escape.

In today’s world, terrorists look for symbolic values rather than inflicting general harm to the “enemy” operation, i.e. damage to communication infrastructure, as we have seen in past wars. Terrorist groups and heads of such crucial operations target people around the world who would witness the unfolding events via the media. They look for common ground and use a large gathering of the public in a hotel, where they can possibly attack people from many different nations.

As noted, the first step is selecting a target is based strategically on several factors. Hotels happen to meet a few of these factors and sometimes exceed them depending on their location. First, hotels are a soft target. The security measures applied in a vacation/business hotel are not designed with terror attacks in mind. Thus, hotels in general are less protected and would generate a high number of casualties. Many of the injured people are usually Western tourists or business people.

As someone who works in the hotel industry and strongly believes that tourism is the bridge for global peace, I feel deeply saddened when such attacks occur. I strongly condemn such actions and call for others to unite against militant ideal groups who target hotels whatever their reason might be.