Indian forces blast Mumbai hotel with grenades amid militants' last stand

Flames engulfed a corner of the building's ground floor and dark smoke billowed from windows amid a steady stream of gunfire as Indian commandos intensified a counterattack against holed-up gunmen.

More than 150 people were killed in the violence that started when assailants attacked 10 sites across India's financial capital Wednesday night. Fifteen foreigners were among the dead.

The bodies of New York Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, were found at the Jewish center. Their son, Moshe, who turned 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 rival 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.

As fighting stretched into a fourth day Saturday, the Taj Mahal hotel was wracked by hours of intermittent gunfire and explosions, even though authorities said earlier they cleared it of gunmen.

Indian forces launched grenades and traded gunfire with what authorities believed was one or two militants holed up in the ballroom. What appeared to be a black-clad figure toppled from a first-floor window, but further details were unavailable.

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

1|2|Next Page>>

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email