Mumbai attacks: Indian troops storm Jewish centre

[MikeWB]

Mumbai attacks: Indian troops storm Jewish centre
Indian commandos have stormed a Jewish centre taken by terrorists in Mumbai, as they attempt to free hostages and target gunman across the city.
 
By Gordon Rayner and Damien McElroy in Mumbai
Last Updated: 9:22AM GMT 28 Nov 2008

After dropping thunderflashes to create a diversion, troops in black abseiled from a helicopter onto the roof of the building before entering to confront the terrorists. Gunfire could be heard from outside.
The centre was one of several targets in the city attacked by Islamist gunmen, who some reports claim could include British-born Pakistanis.
Across the city, operations to evacuate tourists held hostage in two hotels were underway, and police officers said the end of the seige was in sight.
Foreign and Indian guests were evacuated from the Taj Mahal and Trident Oberoi hotels room by room and were escorted into waiting buses and cars. One man held a baby in his arms.
At least one of the 25 captives released from the Oberoi Hotel was British.
The group, which also included at least two Americans, were rushed to waiting cars.
A man, who said he was British but would not give his name, said: "I didn't see anything. I just heard loud blasts.
"I was in my room. I didn't get out till an hour ago."
Another evacuee, Muneer Al Mahaj, said: "I am hungry and thirsty. Let me eat first. I have not seen a proper meal for the last 36 hours. I have been surviving only on biscuits and that too got over.
"Last night I ran out of water too."
The operation by troops at the Oberoi Hotel would be wrapped up within two hours, the state's chief minister said.
The chief of one commando unit flushing out militants at the Taj Mahal said that he saw 12 to 15 bodies in one room.
British citizen Nicole Griffen described how Indian special forces screened those escaping from the Taj Mahal to root out any attackers.
She told Radio 5 Live: "They entered and looked through our passports and scouted around to see if there were [anyone] harbouring terrorists or attackers and then we were promptly told where to go by the central stairway and again we were asked to wait with other guests while they checked other floors and checked other rooms and we all congregated into one space where they could protect us centrally."
At the Jewish centre, officials said an unknown number of hostages, including Israelis, were believed to be held inside by three gunmen.
Soldiers had taken up positions on stairs and balconies around the outside of the building as equipment was dropped from the helicopter hovering above.
The Israeli embassy denied any Israeli forces were involved in the assault.
Intermittent loud explosions and rapid gunfire were heard from inside Nariman House, a business and residential complex where the Jewish centre is located.
Seven hostages were rescued from the complex late on Thursday, Indian security officials said.
The violence - aimed at Western targets – has killed 130 people, including a British tycoon.
The authorities blamed militants from Pakistan-ruled Kashmir for the bloodbath, which left 125 dead and at least 327 injured after simultaneous attacks on at least seven targets in Mumbai (formerly Bombay).
Indian officials said the terrorists had "pretended" to be Indians, but that one who was captured appeared to be from Pakistan.
News channel NDTV reported that "British citizens of Pakistani origin" were among the attackers.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We have seen the media reports but we are not aware of anything giving any credence to those reports at the moment."
The Hindu newspaper has claimed that three of the militants confessed they are members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group.
Lashkar-e-Taiba, one of the largest Islamist militant groups in South Asia, has denied on that it had any role in the attacks.
Officials said the death toll was likely to rise once burnt-out rooms in the hotels could be checked for bodies.
Mumbai's central railway station, a hospital, police station, cinema and a Jewish centre - where two large explosions were heard - were among other targets hit by the terrorists, who sailed by boat to the peninsula before fanning out in several dinghies and landing on the shore close to their predetermined targets.
The killers specifically targeted British and American visitors when they attacked the Oberoi and Taj Mahal luxury hotels, ordering receptionists to give them a list of the names and room numbers of all British and US guests and demanding that hostages declared their nationalities.
At least five Britons are being treated in hospital after being injured in the shootings, and many more are feared to be among those still inside the hotels.
As Indian commandos fought their way through the corridors of the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi – both of which had earlier been set on fire by the terrorists – Mr Abell, from London, said he had barricaded his door and was "hunkering down for the long term".
He said: "I'm holed up in my room, with furniture blockading the door. The British consul knows I'm here, and I've been told to sit tight and wait. Whether that will be for an hour, a day, a week, nobody knows."
The British man killed in the attacks was named as Andreas Liveras, 73, who was gunned down moments after he phoned the BBC from inside the Taj Mahal hotel to give an eyewitness account of the terrorist attacks.
Before he was hit, Mr Liveras, who built a £315 million fortune from his eponymous luxury yacht charter business, described how he had just sat down for dinner at the Taj Mahal when the shooting began.
"We heard the machine gunfire outside in the corridor," he said. "We hid ourselves under the table and then they switched all the lights off. But the machine guns kept going, and they took us into the kitchen, and from there into a basement, before we came up into a salon.
"There must be more than a thousand people here. Nobody comes in this room and nobody goes out, and we really don't know. Everybody is just living on their nerves."
The Indian home ministry estimated 20 to 30 people were being held hostage at the Oberoi, while its owners estimated 200 people were inside.
Two retired teachers from Hexham in Northumberland were among those shot in the first of the attacks, in the Café Leopold, at 9.30pm local time (4pm GMT) on Wednesday.
Michael Murphy, 59, was shot in the ribs and is in intensive care after having his spleen removed. His wife Diane, 58, who was shot in the foot, said: "It was mayhem. There were so many casualties. It was carnage. There were obviously people injured and others who were dead."
Mrs Murphy said there were at least 100 people in the café when the shooting began.
"All of a sudden there was automatic gunfire," she said. "The whole place fell apart. It was tremendously loud. My husband and I were hit, as were lots of people. Everybody was down on the ground."
Alan Jones, from South Wales, was staying at the Oberoi Hotel on business when it was attacked. He said: "We took the lift to the lobby and heard bangs as the door opened. Two Japanese men riding with us got out, but immediately signalled for us to go back in the lift.
"As they got back in, a bullet hit one of the Japanese men in the back of the leg. Flesh and blood splattered everywhere.
"I looked up to see one of the gunmen was approaching. I tried to close the door, but the injured guy's leg was preventing it from closing.
"I frantically pressed the 'close door' button, but had to move the shot man's foot for the door to close."
Mr Jones escaped after being guided by staff to a basement via another lift.
Hugh Brown, who was staying at the Taj Mahal, took refuge in a library area with a large group of people, one of whom later turned out to be a terrorist.
He told Sky News: "We were let out at one point at about 2.30am. There was a gunman who had been in among us in the room for the best part of the evening. He pretended to be one of us in the room.
"When he got out with us, he started shooting some of the people as they were leaving the room."
One of the terrorists was quoted on Indian TV saying the purpose of the hostage-taking was to secure the release of all "mujahideen" held in Indian prisons.
The Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, said the attacks were "well planned and well-orchestrated... intended to create a sense of panic by choosing high profile targets and indiscriminately killing foreigners".
David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, said yesterday that the attacks bore some hallmarks of al-Qaeda but it was too early to say if the network was behind the deadly assaults.
"It is very premature to start talking about links to Al-Qaeda," he said. "Some of the names of groups that are being circulated at the moment are not al-Qaeda affiliates, but that cannot be taken as a definitive view."

[mastermg]

"British-born Pakistanis" (paragraph 1)
Thats pretty suspicious right there.

[memory hole]

"British-born Pakistanis" aka. MI5 patsies ala 7/7 ?

[memory hole]

Massacre in Mumbai: Up to SEVEN gunmen were British and 'came from same area as 7/7 bombers'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... mbers.html

    * British-born Pakistanis among arrested militants
    * Commandos storm strongholds to rescue hostages
    * Siege continues at Taj hotel as bystanders wounded
    * Death toll rises as another 24 bodies found in hotel
    * At least five dead hostages found in Jewish Centre

British-born Pakistanis were among the Mumbai terrorists, Indian government sources claimed today, as the death toll rose to at least 150.

As many as seven of the terrorists may have British connections and some could be from Leeds and Bradford where London's July 7 bombers lived, one source said.

Two Britons were among eight gunmen being held, according to Mumbai's chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. At least nine others are reportedly dead.

The eight arrested were captured by commandos after they stormed two hotels and a Jewish centre to free hostages today.

One security official said: 'There is growing concern about British involvement in the attacks.'

[EireWarrior]

Update:
http://voanews.com/english/2008-11-29-voa8.cfm

Mumbai Siege Over, Indian Forces Kill Last Militants
By Steve Herman
29 November 2008

Indian security officials say they have regained control of Mumbai following the most extended terrorist assault in the country's history. Some 60 hours after a group of gunmen threw India's commercial capital into bloody chaos, officials say all of the suspected Islamic militants have been killed or captured. VOA correspondent Steve Herman reports from New Delhi on the end of the days of turmoil that has left nearly 200 people dead.

Along the Colaba coastline, at the Gateway of India, gunfire punctuated the early morning hours Saturday.

Inside and around the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel, a building synonymous with modern Indian luxury, commandos tossed grenades and set fires to flush out the remaining terrorists.

Police forces had been overwhelmed. It took days of intense and prolonged battles between elite military squads and well-equipped, fiercely determined insurgents to end the siege at the Taj, the nearby Trident-Oberoi Hotel and the expatriate Jewish community center.

'Terrorists Killed'

The director-general of the National Security Guards, J.K. Dutt, said, "In the Taj, three terrorists have been killed."  The National Security Guards spearheaded the operation at the three locations.

But Dutt told reporters at the Taj that he would not declare the last of the three urban combat sites secured until hundreds of rooms in the hotel had been cleared.

Dutt says an unknown number of terrified guests still need to be persuaded that it is safe to leave the rooms where many had taken refuge since Wednesday evening.

It had taken until Friday to eliminate the attackers from the two other sites where a number of civilians were found dead of gunshots. The Trident-Oberoi, like the Taj, had been stormed by the terrorists who made a systematic effort to capture foreigners, especially those holding American and British passports.

At the third site, Nariman House, there had been a grim unprecedented assault where Islamic radicals took Jewish hostages.

Commandos dropped by helicopter onto the roof of the Jewish community center early Friday engaged in a prolonged battle to free five Israeli hostages. All were found dead late in the day.

Death Toll Could Rise

Authorities say it could take many more days to make an accurate assessment of the carnage.

What is clear, so far, is that about 200 people were killed in the attacks, including many foreigners. Hundreds more were wounded in as many as 12 separate assaults.

Hundreds of millions of Indians were transfixed by televised images of burning luxury hotels and bloody carnage at rail stations and cafes where people of all classes and color mingled.

Indian allegations of Pakistani ties to the attack threaten to set back recent progress in often tense relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.  Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attacks.

While India has suffered a wave of terrorist bombings in recent years this attack has rocked the nation and is expected to color the country's political and diplomatic mood for an extended time.