India mops up last of Mumbai militants

Black streaks of soot stained the grey bricks, white balconies and red-tiled roofs of the hotel’s facade.

The ground floor was gutted, the wood-paneled walls blackened and cracked by explosions and fire.

Wine glasses and soup bowls were scattered on the floor, a charred gilt chandelier broken in pieces on a carpet and shattered glass strewn throughout the Taj’s boutique shops.

“At one time it was so magnificent. We were admiring it, sitting in the swing near the pool,” Patricia said.

“At one moment it was just serene and sensational, and the next, it was all gone.”

Nine of the gunmen were killed, a tenth caught alive. He told interrogators they wanted to go down in history for an Indian version of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Times Now TV said, quoting an unidentified defense ministry official.

They were also inspired by the bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad in September, it said.

The Taj Mahal was the last battleground after three days of intense fighting in various parts of the city of 18 million.

Several newspapers said some of the militants had checked into the Taj hotel days or weeks before the attacks, while the Times of India said they had rented an apartment in the city a few months ago pretending to be students.

On Friday, an army general said the gunmen appeared to be very familiar with the hotel’s layout and were well trained.

“At times we found them matching us in combat and movement,” one commando told the Hindustan Times. “They were either army regulars or have done a long stint of commando training.”

Mumbai disaster authorities said at least 195 people had been killed and 295 wounded, the death toll rising as bodies were collected from the Taj and nearby Trident-Oberoi hotels, scene of another siege that ended on Friday.

The attacks struck at the heart of Mumbai, the engine room of an economic boom that has made India a favorite emerging market.

It is also home to the “Bollywood” film industry, the epitome of glamour in a country blighted by poverty.

The arrested man has confessed to being a member of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, which has long fought Indian forces in disputed Kashmir and was blamed for an attack on India’s parliament in December 2001, newspapers said.

Authorities said 22 foreigners were among the dead, including three Germans, three Israelis, one American, one Australian, a Briton, two Canadians, an Italian, a Japanese, a Singaporean, a Mauritian, a Thai and a Chinese national. Five were unidentified, they said.

However, the U.S. State Department has said five Americans were killed while two French nationals are also known to have died.

India denied reports any of the attackers were British.

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