Mumbai hostages rescued in assault

MUMBAI – Masked Indian commandos dropped from helicopters yesterday onto the roof of a Jewish center where suspected Islamic militants were holed up, possibly with hostages, as sharpshooters kept up a steady stream of fire at the five-story building.

The assault came as commandos freed nearly two dozen captives from the nearby Oberoi hotel as the troops searched the building for attackers, on the third day since a chain of militant attacks across India’s financial center left at least 119 people dead.

Security officials insisted 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.

Less than an hour later, two loud explosions and gunfire rang out at the luxury Taj Mahal hotel, which authorities had insisted was cleared of gunmen on Thursday night.

The commando attack on the headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch was punctuated by gunshots and explosions from within the building as forces cleared it floor by floor, according to an AP reporter at the scene.

One camouflaged commando came out with a bandage on his forehead, while soldiers fired smoke grenades into the building and a steady stream of gunshots reverberated across the narrow alleys.

Tales of terror

Eyewitnesses have described dramatic scenes of terror – from bodies in pools of blood to desperate hotel guests arming themselves with cleavers to survive.

Caught up in the brazen attack on India’s financial hub, many said they cowered in the dark for hours, waiting to be rescued and fearing the militants would shoot them dead at any moment.

“We heard some gunshots. We barricaded the restaurant and we moved everybody into the kitchen,” said Faisul Nagel, a South African security guard who was in the Taj Mahal hotel with colleagues when the assault began.

“We basically put the lights off in the restaurant just to create an element of surprise. And we armed ourselves with kitchen knives and meat cleavers,” he told AFP by phone.

They ended up helping around 120 people escape — including a 90-year-old woman who had to be carried in her chair down 25 flights of stairs.

Paul Guest, a retired Australian judge, was found by armed soldiers in his room at the Taj Mahal. He could scarcely believe what he saw when he was led to safety.

“Outside in the foyer of this beautiful hotel, (it) was just like in a fog with all the smoke,” he told Australian radio. “There was blood all over the floor and bits of bodies.”

“We’ve been waiting for hours and hours for the army to come and say we can go downstairs,” one Western woman told AFP by phone late Thursday from inside the Oberoi/Trident.

“We have to keep silent. They could be looking for hostages,” she said.

David Coker, 23, and his partner Katie Anstee, 24, had just arrived for a holiday to celebrate their graduation from university when they went to eat at Mumbai’s Cafe Leopold on Wednesday night.

“We had literally just ordered and then it seemed like firecrackers — people were screaming,” he told Australia’s Courier-Mail newspaper.

Anstee was shot in the leg, with the bullet breaking her femur and exiting through the front of her thigh, while Coker was grazed by a bullet.

“I turned around and she was crawling out the door because she couldn’t walk,” he said.

Garrick Harvison, who was trapped in the Oberoi with an Australian trade delegation, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that he kept looking at pictures of his young family to remain calm during his ordeal.

With the ordeal ongoing Friday, it was not immediately known if all those who spoke to outside media had managed to make it to safety.

One man who did not survive was 73-year-old Andreas Liveras, who gave an interview to the BBC by phone while he was stuck inside the Taj Mahal.

He said that as he was speaking, “The last bomb exploded about 45 minutes ago and it shook the hotel up. Nobody comes in this room and nobody goes out, and we don’t really know.”

Liveras was later confirmed dead. The Cyprus News Agency quoted his brother saying he had been “assassinated in cold blood.”

Out of Oberoi

At least 93 people, most of them foreigners, were released Friday from Mumbai’s Oberoi/Trident hotel

“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,” one of those brought out, Muneer Al Mahaj told reporters.

“Last night I ran out of water too,” he said.

Mahaj, from the southern Iraqi city of Basra, was in Mumbai on a business trip with a friend. He was in a room on the fourth floor of the hotel when the militants stormed the building late Wednesday.

“I cannot believe what I have seen in the last 36 hours. I have seen dead bodies, blood everywhere and only heard gunshots,” he added.

“First I thought it will get over by next day morning but I could not believe that these terrorists took all of us hostage for more than 36 hours.”

‘External forces’ blamed

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

Pakistan’s Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar, in Islamabad, denied involvement by his country: “I will say in very categoric terms that Pakistan is not involved in these gory incidents.”

The gunmen were well-prepared, even carrying large bags of almonds to keep up their energy during the fight. Their main targets appeared to be Americans, Britons and Jews, though most of the dead seemed to be Indians and foreign tourists caught in the random gunfire.

“They have AK-47s and grenades. They have bags full of grenades and have come fully prepared,” said Maj. Gen. R.K. Hooda.

Ratan Tata, who runs the company that owns the elegant Taj Mahal, said they had detailed knowledge of the layout of the hotels.

A US investigative team was heading to Mumbai, a State Department official said Thursday evening, speaking on condition of anonymity because the US and Indian governments were still working out final details. The official declined to identify which agency or agencies the team members came from.

India has been shaken repeatedly by terror attacks blamed on Muslim militants in recent years, but most of them were coordinated bombings striking random crowded places: markets, street corners, parks.

Motive unclear

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

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

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.

Relations between Hindus, who make up more than 80 percent of India’s one 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. AP