Indian forces fight last gunmen in Mumbai hotel

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-29 10:30

MUMBAI, India – Indian forces fired grenades at the landmark Taj Mahal hotel Friday, the last stand of the suspected Muslim militants, just hours after elite commandos stormed a Jewish outreach center and found six hostages dead.

Indian army soldiers take position outside the besieged Taj Hotel in Mumbai November 28, 2008. [Agencies]

More than 150 people were killed in the violence that began when gunmen attacked 10 sites across India's financial capital Wednesday night. Fifteen foreigners, including five Americans, were among the dead.

The bodies of New York Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, were found at the Jewish center. Their newly orphaned son, Moshe, who turns 2 on Saturday, was scooped up by an employee Thursday as she fled the building.

Authorities scrambled to identify those responsible for the unprecedented attack, with Indian officials pointing across the border at Pakistan, and Pakistani leaders promising to cooperate in the investigation. A team of FBI agents was ordered to fly to India to investigate the attacks.

With the fighting stretching into a third day, commandos killed the last two gunmen inside the luxury Oberoi hotel, where 24 bodies had been found, authorities said. Dozens of people, including a man clutching a baby and about 20 airline crew members, were evacuated from the Oberoi earlier Friday.

"I'm going home. I'm going to see my wife," said Mark Abell, a Briton who had locked himself in his room during the siege.

The Taj Mahal hotel was wracked by hours of intermittent gunfire and explosions throughout the day, even though authorities said they had cleared it of gunmen the night before. At dusk, Indian forces began launching grenades at the building, where authorities believed one or perhaps two militants were holed up in a ballroom.

CNN reported the government had cut off their live transmissions from the scene in Mumbai. Authorities have asked not to show live broadcasts of the battle because they believe the gunmen were monitoring the news. Most channels largely obliged.

The capture of the hotel would mark the end of one of the most brazen terror attacks in India's history.

By Friday evening, at least nine gunmen had been killed and one arrested, said R. Patil, a top official in Maharashtra state, where Mumbai is the capital.

In the most dramatic of the counterstrikes Friday morning, masked Indian commandos rappelled from a helicopter to the rooftop of the Chabad Lubavitch Jewish center as snipers laid down cover fire.

For nearly 12 hours, explosions and gunfire erupted from the five-story building as the commandos fought their way downward, while thousands of people gathered behind barricades in the streets to watch.

The assault blew huge holes in the center, and, at one point, Indian forces fired a rocket at the building.

Soon after, elated commandos ran outside with their rifles raised over their heads in a sign of triumph.

But inside the Chabad House was a scene of tragedy.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israel's Channel 1 TV that the bodies of three women and three men were found at the center. Some of the victims had been bound, Barak said. "All in all, it was a difficult spectacle," he said.

Local media reports, quoting top military officials, said two gunmen were found dead in the building.

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