India Terror Siege Drags On At Hotel
As Many As Six Gunmen May Be In Taj Mahal; Five Hostages Found Dead Inside Jewish Center
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Army personnel lie down near a tourism poster of Taj Mahal Hotel, and aim a grenade launcher at a part of the facade of the Taj Mahal Hotel, unseen, in Mumbai, India, Friday, Nov. 28, 2008. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
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An Indian soldiers aims at Taj Mahal Hotel where suspected militants are holed up during an assault in Mumbai, India, Nov. 28, 2008. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
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A rescued hostage waves as she sits in a bus after being released from Oberoi Trident Hotel in Mumbai, India, Nov. 28, 2008. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)
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Indian commando comes down a rope to reach the top of Nariman House, a location under siege by suspected militants in Mumbai, India, Nov. 28, 2008. (AP Photo/Siddhartha Babaji)
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Indian army soldiers patrol outside Oberoi Trident Hotel where suspected militants are holed up in Mumbai, India, Nov. 28, 2008. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
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Indian and Israeli rescue officials say the commandos found the bodies of five hostages inside the Jewish center. Two gunmen were also killed.
Meanwhile, as many as six gunmen are thought to be in the Taj Mahal hotel. After hours of intermittent gunfire and explosions Indian forces began launching grenades at the landmark hotel.
Commandos had killed the two last gunmen inside the nearby Oberoi earlier in the day, and the head of the commando unit says it's under control.
More than 150 people have been killed since gunmen attacked 10 sites across India's financial capital starting Wednesday night, including 22 foreigners two of them Americans, officials said.
Early Friday night, Indian commandos emerged from a besieged Jewish center with rifles raised in an apparent sign of victory after a daylong siege that saw a team rappel from helicopters and a series of explosions and fire rock the building and blow giant holes in the wall.
After hours of intermittent gunfire and explosions at the elegant Taj Mahal hotel Friday, the battle heated up at dusk when Indian forces began launching grenades at the hotel, where at least one militant was believed to be holed up inside a ballroom, officials said.
CBS News correspondent Celia Hatton reported that the chief of the of commando unit which raided the Taj Mahal Friday said he had seen about 50 bodies strewn about inside the luxury hotel.
Commandos had killed the two last gunmen inside the nearby Oberoi earlier in the day.
"The hotel is under our control," J.K. Dutt, director general of India's elite National Security Guard commando unit, told reporters, adding that 24 bodies had been found. Dozens of people - including a man clutching a baby - had been evacuated from Oberoi earlier Friday.
The airborne assault on the center run by the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch was punctuated by gunshots and explosions and exchanges of fire as forces cleared it floor by floor, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.
Nearly 12 hours after the battle began, Indian troops left the building to cheers from the crowd, but the fate of the two to three hostages believed to be inside was unclear, said Mumbai Police Chief Hassan Ghaffoor. Ghaffoor said "the operation was ongoing" but in its "final stage."
Israel's ambassador to India, Mark Sofer, said they believed there were up to nine hostages inside. Sofer denied reports that Israeli commandos were taking part in the operation.
Moshe Holtzberg, a 2-year-old who was smuggled out of the center by an employee, is now with his grandparents. His grandfather told Israel Radio on Friday that he had no news of Moshe's parents.
More than were 288 injured when suspected Islamic militants attacked 10 sites in Mumbai starting Wednesday evening. Two Americans - a Virginia man and his teenage daughter - are confirmed dead.
Read more.At least eight foreigners are known to have been killed so far and 22 more have been injured, said top security official M.L. Kumawat. The dead include three Germans, and one person each from Japan, Canada, Britain and Australia. The nationality of one more victim is unknown.
The injured include five from Britain, three Germans, two Americans, two from Oman and one each from Norway, Spain, Canada, Finland, Philippines, Australia, Italy and China. Two more were unknown.
Security officials said their operations were almost over.
"It's just a matter of a few hours that we'll be able to wrap up things," Lt. Gen. N. Thamburaj told reporters Friday morning.
Dozens of people were evacuated from the luxury Oberoi earlier Friday, including 20 Western airline crew members and an earlier group of seven, some of whom were carrying luggage bearing Canadian flags.
About nine masked Indian commandos dropped from helicopters onto the roof of the Jewish center, where Muslim militants were rumored to have taken hostages - possibly including a rabbi and his wife. Sharpshooters kept up a steady stream of fire at the five-story building.
Shortly after the commandos landed on the roof of the building, top Indian Army commander Lt. Gen. N. Thamburaj said anti-terrorist operations in Mumbai should be over within a few hours.
On Thursday morning, two workers and a child escaped from the building, the only people to emerge so far. The child was identified as Moshe Holtzberg, 2, the son of Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, the main representative at Chabad house. The child was unharmed, but his clothes were soaked in blood.
Hundreds of people had been captive in the two hotels, many locking themselves in their rooms or trying to hide as the gunmen roamed the buildings.
Commandos spent much of Thursday bringing out hostages, trapped guests and corpses from the hotels in small groups while firefighters battled flames that erupted. The fires were out by Friday.

"The gun shots were following us," said Bains, as she recounted her ordeal. (Click here for more harrowing eyewitness accounts.)
The well-coordinated strikes by small bands of gunmen starting Wednesday night left the city shell-shocked. An Indian police official said Friday that 24 bodies had been found when security personnel entered the Oberoi, raising the death toll from the attacks to 143 people. Almost 300 more were injured.
As the extent of the carnage was revealed Friday, the origin of the attack remained a mystery, with different reports pinning the likely blame on India's well-established Islamic militant groups, but increasing rhetoric that pointed a finger of guilt in the direction of Pakistan.
"According to preliminary information, some elements in Pakistan are responsible for Mumbai terror attacks," Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters Friday in the western city of Jodhpur. "Proof cannot be disclosed at this time."
On Thursday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed "external forces" for the violence - a phrase, reported CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips, which means Pakistan or groups operating from within Pakistan.
According to preliminary information, some elements in Pakistan are responsible for Mumbai terror attacks.
Pranab MukherjeeIndian External Affairs Minister
But militant groups hostile to India and the West still operate in Pakistan, and certain elements within Pakistan's powerful military intelligence services are thought to be sympathetic.
Pakistan said Friday it would send its top intelligence official to India to help with the investigation. The office of Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said he had agreed to send the head of the Inter Services Intelligence agency based on a request from his Indian counterpart.
A government statement said Indian premier Manmohan Singh told Gilani during a phone call on Friday that preliminary reports about the attack "point towards Karachi," Pakistan's largest city. The statement didn't elaborate.
India's NDTV reported Friday that one or two of the gunmen may have been British nationals of Pakistani descent. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said no "early conclusions" could be made "about British involvement" in the attacks, and NDTV did not offer evidence to support the claim.
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.
Walid Phares, a Senior Fellow and the director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington, told CBS News that the attacks may have been intended to take pressure off Islamic militants operating inside Pakistan.
Phares explained that, as India-Pakistan relations have improved under pressure from the U.S., troops have been slowly moving away from the two country's shared border and advanced instead toward the Taliban deeper inside Pakistan.
He said it was possible the Mumbai attacks were aimed at relaxing pressure on Taliban and other extremists along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border by re-establishing the tensions on the Indian side.
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."

The gunmen - some of whom strode casually through their targets in khakis and T-shirts - clearly came ready for a siege.
"They have AK-47s and grenades. They have bags full of grenades and have come fully prepared," said Maj. Gen. R.K. Hooda.
A U.S. investigative team was heading to Mumbai, a State Department official said Thursday evening, speaking on condition of anonymity because the U.S. and Indian governments were still working out final details. The official declined to identify which agency or agencies the team members came from.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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See all 107 CommentsFighting to the death."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave
"They have bags full of grenades and have come fully prepared," said Maj. Gen. R.K. Hooda.
The gunmen were overpowered when they began throwing almonds and eating hand grenades by mistake.
Either that or "Thank you, come again!"
You mean Rupert Murdochs'' Sky News? Veeery interesting...
*things that make ya go Hmmm....*
Posted by Rowdydfw at 04:24 AM
Well there is the Holy handgrenade. (It''s in the Book of Armaments).
Posted by downsteamjim at 08:21 AM
It has always been that way. You never heard how many Indians died at Little Big Horn....
ap log bohot education rakhte hain lekin ab bhi ap logon ki thinking negative hai chahe hindu ho ya muslim koi bhi religon terrorism ko pasand nahi karta.our prophet(PBUH)said that murder of one person is the murder of all nation so how can we do this?
plz stop this propegenda against pakistanies.
pakistan is honest with you but its really bad that u people are not honest with us.
plz be honest & faithful and stop negative politics activities.
in the i want to say to all the world LOVE FOR ALL & HATRED FOR NONE.
thats it thnk you GOD bless u .
ap log bohot education rakhte hain lekin ab bhi ap logon ki thinking negative hai chahe hindu ho ya muslim koi bhi religon terrorism ko pasand nahi karta.our prophet(PBUH)said that murder of one person is the murder of all nation so how can we do this?
plz stop this propegenda against pakistanies.
[b]pakistan is honest with you but its really bad that u people are not honest with us.
plz be honest & faithful and stop negative politics activities.
in the i want to say to all the world LOVE FOR ALL & HATRED FOR NONE.
thats it thnk you GOD bless u .[/b]
ap log bohot education rakhte hain lekin ab bhi ap logon ki thinking negative hai chahe hindu ho ya muslim koi bhi religon terrorism ko pasand nahi karta.our prophet(PBUH)said that murder of one person is the murder of all nation so how can we do this?
plz stop this propegenda against pakistanies.
[b]pakistan is honest with you but its really bad that u people are not honest with us.
plz be honest & faithful and stop negative politics activities.
in the i want to say to all the world LOVE FOR ALL & HATRED FOR NONE.
thats it thnk you GOD bless u .[/b]
Posted by nidafatima at 08:27 AM
That''s your third (1st of all)....
If not then it proves that Islam is a religion of HATE..!!!!
And if all Muslims do not condemn this act after other muslims claim responsibility for this action then maybe it is time for people to start bombing Mosques.. Give them a taste of their own medicine!!!
Thank you President Bush for keeping us safe for the last 7 years. God help us starting in January.
Posted by renojmc at 09:29 AM
Which God? The Islamic God, or the Jewish God?...or the Hindu God, or the Scientologist God....
I just hope that the suicide bombers get together and have some live fire training exercises in the middle east..
Posted by libsh8theUSA at 09:21 AM : Nov 28, 2008
You should not be making terrorist threats.
We''ve had enough of that.
Thank you President Bush for keeping us safe for the last 7 years. God help us starting in January.
--------------------------
Posted by renojmc at 09:29 AM : Nov 28, 2008
Yes I agree with you that more and more people are accepting Islam.
Kind of like the Bornagain Endtimers and the Army of God in the USA.
Posted by jbrown88881 at 10:12 AM : Nov 28, 2008
You are absolutely right!
Doesn''t this explain anything.
It was UK which was responsible for bringing Europeans into Palestine after WWII to occupy the land of those Palestinians by force who had nothing to do with the actions of Hitler.
It''s those Christian enemies of the United States inside the United States, who support the idea of sacrifising GOD-NEGLECTED AMERICAN MONEY, GOD-NEGLECTED AMERICAN LIVES and UNHOLY LAND UNITED STATES, for a NON-AMERICAN CAUSE, NON-AMERICAN PEOPLE chosen by a RACIST, UNJUST and ANTI-AMERICAN GOD and a NON-AMERICAN HOLY LAND, far away from any state or territory of the United States.
If Europeans were not brought into Palestine after WWII to occupy the land of those Palestinians by force who had nothing to do with the actions of Hitler because bible said so, Islamic Terrorists would not be able to recruit terrorists to commit terrorism because Koran said so.
Mother of all the evils is bible and CHRISTIANITY!
Posted by renojmc at 09:29 AM
Which God? The Islamic God, or the Jewish God?...or the Hindu God, or the Scientologist God....
Posted by earache4 at 09:38 AM : Nov 28, 2008
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There is only one God. He is the God of the Bible. Any other god is a false god.
Posted by renojmc at 10:29 AM : Nov 28, 2008
You talking about the same terrorist god of bible who ordered death sentance for anybody worshiping some other god by saying;
"Take the evil man and woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death"
Deut 17:2-7
"You must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it"
Deut 13:13-19
"Any one who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him"
Lev 24:16
All these non-sense written in that manual of terrorism we call bible which also say;
"The law of the LORD is perfect"
Psalm 19:7
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man''s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it"
Posted by patriotic9 at 10:27 AM : Nov 28, 2008
And Muslims never kill anybody, it always Christians that do the killing. Christians strap explosives on Muslim women and children then gather themselves around the ''poor'' victims then detonate the bombs by rermote control so that it will appear that the Muslim faithful committed suicide to kill scores of people and drive the invaders out. Its such a shame that those hundreds of Christians will go to such lengths just to kill a couple of Muslims.
Posted by mdbill at 10:51 AM : Nov 28, 2008
You probably are unaware of those Christians who killed more then 600,000 innocent Iraqis for setting up the stage for battle of Armagaddon and 2nd coming of terrorist leader "Christ", who according to the bible said;
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man''''s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it"
Matthew 10:34-39
Posted by patriotic9 at 10:51 AM : Nov 28, 2008
The saddest thing is that you are clueless as to what Jesus said. You deserve your future.
Posted by ToolMangler at 10:54 AM : Nov 28, 2008
I totally agree with you about Muslim terrorist being evil as they are the brothers of their Radical Christian friends and Islam is nothing but a continuation of Christianity.
It was a Radical Christian "Reagan", who gave money, weapons and military training to his Radical Muslim brother OSAMA BEEN FORGOTTEN!
They both share same values like;
Advocating marriage right for Heterosexual citizens while denouncing same right for the Homosexuals.
Denouncing women''s right to choose abortion while taking lives of hundreds of millions of innocent people in the name of their god.
Denouncing equal rights for women, etc.
Then plant the pictures of everybody they ever slept with, said hello to, and shook hands with.
Humiliate these vermin and their spawn and even acquaintances. Set up a banishment system within their own ilk.
Eventually a complete shunning of these ways is the only way to combat the problem.
and if that doesn''t help, make them attend American high schools. And they will really learn about peer pressure....
[Patriotic9 says]
"You probably are unaware of those Christians who killed more then 600,000 innocent Iraqis for setting up the stage for battle of Armagaddon and 2nd coming of terrorist leader "Christ",
That is in the past, It is unchangeable. Go after something worthwhile, like the future without war, hate, greed. Continuing to hold to a dead thing will corrupt the holder, the past is dead, live for tomorrow which is what you make of it.
Posted by neonink at 11:09 AM : Nov 28, 2008
That is the only intelligent thing you posted that time.
All of the other things you said will do nothing but hurt somebody that may not have anything to do with this stupidity. Why hurt the innocent? That makes you no different than the terrorist.
A: Religion
Q: How do you rid the world of terrorism?
A: Stop it at its root.
It''s time to put these useless, false and ancient fairy tales behind us before they totally destroy modern society.
A: Religion
Q: How do you rid the world of terrorism?
A: Stop it at its root.
It''''s time to put these useless, false and ancient fairy tales behind us before they totally destroy modern society.
Posted by Voltaire777
You seem to be the only one with a fairy tale in your mind.
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