Militants stormed a series of high-profile targets late Wednesday in India’s financial capital, including the iconic Taj Mahal Palace hotel, a landmark restaurant, the main train station and a charitable hospital for women and children.

They killed more than 125 people and seized scores of hostages, targeting specifically Britons and Americans.

“The sheer scale and planning involved is markedly different from previous attacks — it’s a watershed attack,” Singapore-based security analyst Rohan Gunaratna, author of the book “Inside al-Qaida” told AFP.

Previous assaults in India have involved planting bombs in public places such as busy markets or on trains as in 2006 when Islamist militants staged serial attacks on Mumbai’s congested rail network, killing 186 people.

The attacks targeted civilians “with the intention to foment unrest between Hindu and Muslim communities,” said Jane’s Country Risk analyst Urmila Venugopalan.

India, an officially secular country of more than 1.1 billion people, has a Hindu majority and a population of 113 million Muslims.

But “the apparent focus on killing or capturing foreign businesspeople, specifically U.S. and UK nationals, has never occurred (in India) before, suggesting a wider global anti-Western agenda,” said Venugopalan.

The militants, whom Indian authorities said numbered about 25 and were armed with assault rifles and grenades, specifically sought out U.S. and British citizens as hostages, according to witnesses.

The Israeli embassy in New Delhi also said 10 to 20 Israelis, possibly more, were among the hostages. They included a rabbi who was taken hostage when the militants seized a Jewish cultural centre in Mumbai.

A previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahedeen claimed responsibility for the attacks, triggering speculation they might be linked to the Indian Mujahedeen, which had sent emails claiming responsibility for four attacks it said it staged between November 2007 and September 2008.

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