Commandos Assault Besieged Hostage-Takers

Indian Forces Open Fire On Militants In Jewish Center; Terrorist Attacks Have Killed At Least 119

(CBS/AP)  In Washington, President George W. Bush offered Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "support and assistance" as he works to restore order in the populous and growing Southwest Asian nation, according to White House press secretary Dana Perino.

President-elect Barack Obama spoke by telephone with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Thursday for an update and also received several intelligence briefings.

CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar reported that at least some of the gunmen were thought to have arrived in Mumbai by sea. Video showing several small, inflatable boats was played on Indian news channels. Later Thursday, the Indian navy said its forces were boarding a cargo vessel suspected of ties to the attacks.

Mumbai, on the western coast of India overlooking the Arabian Sea, is home to splendid Victorian architecture built during the British Raj and is one of the most populated cities in the world with some 18 million crammed into shantytowns, high rises and crumbling mansions.

Among the other places attacked was the 19th century Chhatrapati Shivaji railroad station - a beautiful example of Victorian Gothic architecture - where gunmen sprayed bullets into the crowded terminal, leaving the floor splattered with blood.

"They just fired randomly at people and then ran away. In seconds, people fell to the ground," said Nasim Inam, a witness.

Analysts around the world were debating whether the gunmen could have been tied to - or inspired by - al Qaeda.

"It's clear that it is al Qaeda style," but probably not carried out by the group's militants, said Rohan Gunaratna, of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore and author of "Inside Al Qaeda."

Gunaratna said the attacks were a "watershed" for India, "because for the first time, the terrorists deliberately attacked international targets," he said, noting that symbolic high-profile targets had been chosen, apparently to magnify the effects of the violence.

Indian media reports said a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility in e-mails to several media outlets. The Deccan is a region in southern India that was traditionally ruled by Muslim kings.

CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reported that U.S. terror officials had not heard of Deccan Mujahideen before Wednesday. The attacks did bear some frightening hallmarks of al Qaeda; a number of attackers working across multiple targets simultaneously, resulting in a high death count.

But, al Qaeda has not been known in the past for taking hostages or inviting police confrontations, reported Orr. While al Qaeda has shown a clear preference for suicide missions and improvised explosive devices, Wednesday's attackers used assault weapons and grenades.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed "external forces" for the violence - a phrase sometimes used to refer to Pakistani militants, whom Indian authorities often blame attacks on.

"The well-planned and well-orchestrated attacks, probably with external linkages, were intended to create a sense of panic, by choosing high profile targets and indiscriminately killing foreigners," he said in address to the nation.

Survivors of the hotel attacks said the gunmen had specifically targeted Britons and Americans.

Alex Chamberlain, a British citizen dining at the Oberoi, told reporters that a gunman ushered 30 to 40 people from the restaurant into a stairway and ordered everyone to put up their hands.

The gunmen "stopped once and asked, 'Where are you from? Any British or American? Show your ID.' My friend said, 'Tell them you're Italian.' And there I was with my hands up basically thinking I was in a lot of trouble."

Chamberlain said he managed to slip away as the patrons were forced to walk upstairs.

One victim was British-Cypriot Andreas Dionysiou Liveras, 73, the owner of a luxury yacht business, said the Cypriot foreign ministry and his brother, Theophanis Liveras.

Andreas Dionysiou Liveras, who was attending a conference, had spoken to the British Broadcasting Corp. from a locked room inside the Taj Hotel before he was killed.

"As we sat at the table we heard the machine gun fire outside in the corridor. We hid under the table and then they switched all the lights off. ... All we know is the bombs are next door and the hotel is shaking every time a bomb goes off," he said.

Among the dead were at least four Australians and a Japanese, said the state home ministry. An Italian, a Briton and a German were also killed, according to their foreign ministries.

At least three top Indian police officers - including the chief of the anti-terror squad - were among those killed, said Roy.

Among those foreigners still held captive in all three buildings were Americans, British, Italians, Swedes, Canadians, Yemenis, New Zealanders, Spaniards, Turks, French, a Singaporean and Israelis.

The United States, Pakistan and other countries condemned the attacks.

The motive for the onslaught was not immediately clear, but Mumbai has frequently been targeted in terrorist attacks blamed on Islamic extremists, including a series of bombings in July 2006 that killed 187 people.

Mumbai is one of the most populated cities in the world with some 18 million crammed into shantytowns, high rises and crumbling mansions.

Relations between Hindus, who make up more than 80 percent of India's 1 billion population, and Muslims, who make up about 14 percent, have sporadically erupted into bouts of sectarian violence since British-ruled India was split into independent India and Pakistan in 1947.

[mrmeatspin]

The terrorists fight much harder than the thugs Bush hired - you know -the ones the US propaganda system was told to call " contractors"-too bad Bush never learned about the Hessians,the British hired 200 years ago-how did that idiot get to the White House ?

Posted by babooph at 02:39 AM : Nov 29, 2008
+ report abuse

*************

so for a filipino liberal logic..this is justified because blackwater did it..

i got my eye on you

[trishab56]

Self-appointed "terror" experts tend to claim all kinds of stuff, and almost always without any support at all for their claims- much like you just did here, by assuming that the attackers were Muslims, without any evidence to support your conclusion.

This looks far more like a Blackwater/ISI/Mossad/CIA''''''''da attack.

It has all the hallmarks.

Posted by MikeTotten1 at 01:35 PM : Nov 27, 2008
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Oh...you mean self-appointed ''''terror'''' experts such as yourself?
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Posted by ffoulkes at 04:42 AM : Nov 28, 2008

-Do you guys know what were those ''terrorists'' claiming? Media has been very mum about their claims. Why would anyone go and start shooting if they had not claims in mind!?! Does the West know what those radicals wanted? Or is it another staging? Will anyone follow up on the identification of those radicals? Or was it another 9/11, authorities knew about it but let it happen anyway?

[babooph]

The terrorists fight much harder than the thugs Bush hired - you know -the ones the US propaganda system was told to call " contractors"-too bad Bush never learned about the Hessians,the British hired 200 years ago-how did that idiot get to the White House ?

[mrmeatspin]

i am sure they are all glad that bush is out..now they can practice their religion without of butchering people and terrorizing them without bush ruining the party..

THANKS LIBERALS!!

[voltaire777]

Let it never be forgotten that this misery was made possible by religion and brought to you in the name of God.

"If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocitiesl." --Voltaire

Though they will never admit it, the faithful are terrorist enablers.

[mark_st]

typical Mossad false flag !!!!

Posted by kretosdav


yeah but dont forget Al Cia - da

[kretosdav]

typical Mossad false flag !!!!

[ffoulkes-2009]

Then WHY does the word "terrorism" automatically imply that ALL muslims or Islamics are guilty?

Posted by IwasHungry68 at 09:57 PM : Nov 27, 2008
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It doesn''t you dolt. EVERYONE I have EVER heard talking about this issue save a VERY FEW whack jobs believe most of the terrorism happening today is from (get this) RADICAL Fanatical Islamists...Don''t miss the RADICAL at the beginning of that statement. Just because the word Islamists is in the sentence does not imply ALL islamists in any way or form.

[ffoulkes-2009]

1.... Congress must declare war before the president can undertake war. ...
Article I, Section 8 (11) of the constitution says flatly that %u201CThe Congress shall have Power%u2026To declare War,%u201D but no Congress has declared war for the past 60 years. They%u2019ve passed resolutions, they%u2019ve passed authorizations, and they%u2019ve passed budget authorities, but they haven%u2019t declared war. The 108th Congress certainly never declared war on Iraq.

Posted by ms1-1-1 at 04:48 PM : Nov 27, 2008
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Congres (Republicans, Democrats AND Independents) voted for the use of military force in Iraq prior to Bush sending in troops.

Iraq was shooting at our planes in the no-fly zone.

Sodamned Insane was claiming he had WMDs after having used them on his own people in the past.

Sodamned Insane was in contact with various terrorist organizations and was paying families of suicide-bombers.

Iraq refused to allow inspections by UN WMD inspectors.

Iraq was righteously toppled.

[ffoulkes-2009]

That happened over the last 8 years. Our pride has been flushed. The idea is that Obama restores our standing as a country.
Guess you have been hiding under a rock for the last decade eh?

Posted by azure11 at 04:47 PM : Nov 27, 2008
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No, unlike you we have been proud Americans.

[ffoulkes-2009]

Self-appointed "terror" experts tend to claim all kinds of stuff, and almost always without any support at all for their claims- much like you just did here, by assuming that the attackers were Muslims, without any evidence to support your conclusion.

This looks far more like a Blackwater/ISI/Mossad/CIA''''da attack.

It has all the hallmarks.

Posted by MikeTotten1 at 01:35 PM : Nov 27, 2008
____________
Oh...you mean self-appointed ''terror'' experts such as yourself?

[ffoulkes-2009]

Yeah, you gun ''''tards really helped out in 9/11.

Worse, for you it''''s guns guns guns all the time regardless of who gets killed.

We have become more and more anti-gun in this country specifically because of those like you who love guns over their country and their neighbors.

You will reap what you sow.

Posted by jumkey at 12:50 PM : Nov 27, 2008
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Wow...your ''logic'' makes NO sense. You are comparing flying airplanes (which would have never been hijacked if people on board had handguns) to people attacking with automatic rifles (which if a few hundred people armed with handguns were there would not have been as fatal on ''innocents''). Just say you don''t like guns and leave it at that. Terrorism is EXACTLY the kind of thing people need guns to protect against.

[ffoulkes-2009]

WHERE IS THE U.S. COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF BUSH? IS BUSH OFFERING SUPPORT TO INDIA, THE LARGEST DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WITH A "ONE BILLION+PLUS" POPULATION. LAST TIME WE CHECKED, BUSH AND CHENEY ARE STILL GETTING TAXPAYER PAYCHECKS TO REPRESENT THIS COUNTRY AGAINST TERRORIST AROUND THE WORLD? IS THAT NOT STILL TRUE?

Oh, check that, we just got word that Bush and Cheney are AWOL for the next 54 days, until January 20th, 2009?

Posted by Think-People at 12:33 PM : Nov 27, 2008
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Morons like you should check the headlines before you post...makes you look a LITTLE less stupid.

[ffoulkes-2009]

Which religious or political leader, has EVER called for Sharia Law to be instituted ANYWHERE, much less worldwide?

The ONLY people that ever mention "sharia law" are the American christian religious right dingbats. No Islamic religious or political leader has ever called for it.

AGAIN - this just proves that RELIGIONS - PLURAL - are what feed this fire.

Posted by IwasHungry68 at 09:57 AM : Nov 27, 2008
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Well...Taliban comes to mind...then there is Iran, Saudi Arabia...even in parts of England...Everywhere Muslims gain a foothold, they try to put in Sharia Law.

[ffoulkes-2009]

How does my condemning ALL murders, in the name of ANY RELIGION / GOD, favor one religion over another?

Posted by IwasHungry68 at 09:40 AM : Nov 27, 2008
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Here is how. Any time a MUSLIM kills someone, you blame ALL religions, whereas ALL religions were not responsible for what the MUSLIM did. You are taking that killing as an EXCUSE to try and convince people to run away from ALL religions including the peaceful ones (yes they do exist).

[ffoulkes-2009]

Do you oppose Hitler but justify his christian religion which led to the murders of those 6 millions jews?

Posted by IwasHungry68 at 09:39 AM : Nov 27, 2008
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The murder of the Jews was racially driven...not religous. Hitler wanted the Arian Nation...Pure white blond hair, blue eyes...Jews tend to be darker of skin, hair and eyes...they are Arab after all.

[ffoulkes-2009]

If the Arabs put down their weapons today there would be no more violence.

If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel, then there would be no more violence.

Posted by IwasHungry68 at 09:34 AM : Nov 27, 2008
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Wrong...there is still the entire WEST these radicals wish to convert or kill. Pull your head out of the sandbox.

[ffoulkes-2009]

Why segregate one group of fanaticists, with another?

The hatred and intolerance of one religions is better / worse than another?

Hardly.

Posted by IwasHungry68 at 09:30 AM : Nov 27, 2008
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That is like saying if a (black man, Arab, short person, fat guy, you name it) killed someone that ALL (black men, Arabs, short people, fat guys, you name it) should be despised for the crime. You, sir are a Moron. I just hope you aren''t hunted down for what these Morons in India have done.

You keep trying to kill all religion to excuse your own Hedonism and atheism...(both of which are considered religions of their own).

[ffoulkes-2009]

There are so many dubious details in this report.

This looks a lot more like an Israeli Mossad operation than any "Muslim extremist" effort.

Posted by MikeTotten1 at 02:32 AM : Nov 27, 2008
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Is there ANYTHING that happens in this world that you don''t think is part of some conspiracy???

[ffoulkes-2009]

Maybe it''''s time for another round of christian radicals, remember the Crusades?

Face it, no matter the flavor, religion poisons everything.

Posted by Centerfall94 at 02:48 AM : Nov 27, 2008
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You are talking about the Crusaides that took place close to a THOUSAND years ago? Man...talk about needing to get over it. Christianity seems to have grown overall to get beyond that mentality...we are waiting for Muslems to step up and do their own growing.