Indian commandoes fought early Friday to wrest control of two luxury hotels and a Jewish center from suspected Muslim militants, more than a day after a chain of attacks across Mumbai left at least 119 people dead and the city shellshocked.
Gunfire and explosions were heard throughout the day Thursday and into the night then the early morning hours from the besieged headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch and the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, two of the top gathering spots for the Mumbai elite. Throughout the day, commandoes brought hostages, trapped guests and corpses out of the hotels in small groups while fires erupted periodically and firefighters battled the flames.
State officials said 119 people had died and 288 were injured.
The well-planned attacks began Wednesday night and officials said the gunmen were 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.
The gunmen _ some of whom strode casually through their targets in khakis and T-shirts _ clearly came ready for a siege.
'They have AK-47s and grenades. They have bags full of grenades and have come fully prepared,' said Maj. Gen. R.K. Hooda. Vice-Admiral J.S. Bedi, a top naval officer.
Ratan Tata, who runs the company that owns the elegant Taj Mahal, said they appeared to have scouted their targets in advance.
'They seem to know their way around the back office, the kitchen. There has been a considerable amount of detailed planning,' he told a news conference.
Throughout the day, black-clad Indian commandos moved through the two hotels room by room in a bid to free the dozens of trapped people.
The Maharashtra state home ministry said dozens of hostages had been freed from the Oberoi and dozens more were still trapped inside. More than 400 people were brought out of the Taj Mahal.
Authorities said they had killed three gunmen at the Taj and were sweeping the Oberoi in search of hostages and trapped people.
It remained unclear just how many people had been taken hostage, how many were hiding inside the hotels and how many dead still lay uncounted.
There were conflicting reports about hostages at the Jewish center. A diplomat closely monitoring the site said people were still being held there, though an Indian state official said earlier eight hostages had been released. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Two large blasts were heard at the site early Friday morning.
On Thursday morning, a woman, child and an Indian cook were led out of the building by police, said one witness. The child was identified as Moshe Holtzberg, 2, the son of Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, the main representative at Chabad house. The child was unharmed, but his clothes were soaked in blood.
Sandra Samuel, 44, the cook who pulled the boy out the building, said she saw Rabbi Holtzberg, his wife Rivka and two other unidentified guests lying on the floor, apparently 'unconscious.'
India has been shaken repeatedly by terror attacks blamed on Muslim militants in recent years, but most of those attacks have been coordinated bombings that struck random crowded places: markets, street corners, parks.
These attacks were far more sophisticated _ and more brazen.
They began at about 9:20 p.m. with the shooters spraying gunfire across the Chhatrapati Shivaji railroad station, one of the world's busiest terminals. For the next two hours, there was an attack roughly every 15 minutes _ the Jewish center, a tourist restaurant, one hotel, then another, and two attacks on hospitals. There were 10 targets in all.
Indian media showed pictures of rubber dinghies found by the city's shoreline, apparently used by the gunmen to reach the area. Both of the luxury hotels targeted overlook the Arabian Sea, which surrounds the peninsula of Mumbai.
At the Chhatrapati Shivaji railroad station, a soaring 19th century architectural monument, gunmen fired bullets through the crowded terminal, leaving the floor spattered with blood and corpses.
'They just fired randomly at people and then ran away. In seconds, people fell to the ground,' said Nasim Inam, a witness.
Analysts around the world were debating whether the gunmen could have been tied to _ or inspired by _ al-Qaida.
'It's clear that it is al-Qaida style,' but probably not carried out by the group's militants, said Rohan Gunaratna, of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore and author of 'Inside Al-Qaida.'
'Yesterday's attack is a watershed because for the
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