Hostages said dead in Mumbai Jewish center

[oberliner]

Source: AP

MUMBAI, India – Commandos who stormed the Mumbai headquarters of an ultra-orthodox Jewish group found the bodies of five hostages inside, an Israeli emergency medical crew said, as a fresh battle raged at the luxury Taj Mahal hotel and other Indian forces ended a siege at another five-star hotel.

More than 150 people have been killed since gunmen attacked 10 sites across India's financial capital starting Wednesday night, including 22 foreigners — two of them Americans, officials said.

Early Friday night, Indian commandos emerged from a besieged Jewish center with rifles raised in an apparent sign of victory after a daylong siege that saw a team rappel from helicopters and a series of explosions and fire rock the building and blow gaping holes in the wall.

Inside, though, were five dead hostages.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081128/ap_on_re_as/as_indi... ;_ylt=AmKO.mve3NV5M1hKAyLSHi6s0NUE

---

Seemed earlier like there may be a rescue.

Tragically, it was not to be.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. :^(

[LeftishBrit]

2. Very sad.

[EFerrari]

3. So terrible. That poor family. n/t

[xchrom]

4. may Peace be with their families. nt

[Mari333]

5. front page of the jerusalem post

you should see some of the comments after the article. some are chilling.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=122770233606...

[IndianaGreen]

9. Jerusalem Post is a rightwing rag, I prefer Haaretz

Post was owned by convicted felon Conrad Black who was forced to step down as chief executive of Hollinger International Inc. Hollinger was supposed to sell the Post, I don;t know if they have done so. The Post is a favorite of American rightwingers.

[Mari333]

11. thanks for letting me know

i was amazed moreso by the comments section.

[IndianaGreen]

12. That's the readership I was referring to

I used to be a JP subscriber until Black bought it.

[PCIntern]

6. I'm not going to post

what's going thru my Zionist mind right now.

I am too sick at heart to think clearly...

It is just never-fucking-ending.

[rockymountaindem]

10. I bet we're thinking the same thing

It's like even when we've got nothing to do with other peoples' gripes (in this case India/Pakistan), they never seem to forget to kill some of us. Obviously it makes them feel like they're making a real contribution. I hope those responsible pay big time.

[PCIntern]

13. you stated it very well....

A billion people in a country with all kinds of internal and external issues, with a few outposts of us for travelers and a very small population, and they knocked themselves out, WENT OUT OF THEIR WAY, to massacre us.

[aquart]

7. CNN finally figured out that Chabad Lubovitch is New York American.

[IndianaGreen]

8. Livni: "the targets...were Jewish, Israeli targets and targets identified with the West"

'Five hostages killed at Mumbai Chabad House'

By Anshel Pfeffer, Barak Ravid, Amos Harel and Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondents, and News Agencies

Livni did not confirm ZAKA's numbers at a news conference about the attack. But she said she could not be optimistic about the hostages' survival.

She said members of Israel's diplomatic mission to India had not entered the Chabad House building in Mumbai because explosives continued to go off after the siege was thought to be over.

"There is no doubt, we know, that the targets the terrorists singled out were Jewish, Israeli targets and targets identified with the West, Americans and Britons," Livni said.

"Our world is under attack, it doesn't matter whether it happens in India or somewhere else," she added. "There are Islamic extremists who don't accept our existence or Western values."

Israeli diplomat Haim Choshen told Israeli television by telephone from the scene that the bodies of five hostages were found Friday after Indian security forces stormed the besieged Chabad center in Mumbai.

"Five bodies of hostages have been found inside the Chabad House," Choshen told Channel 2. "We still don't know whose bodies."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041834.html

[Danmel]

14. 15,000 Jews in a population of One Billion people

And they are still the targets. I would like to say I'm surprised, but of course I'm not.

India has had a long history of tolerance of Jews and very few anti-Semitic incidents- that makes this all the more sad.

[wartrace]

15. There is still one heck of a gunfight going on in the hotel.

I just saw some Indian soldiers carrying in multiple cans of ammo.

[IndianaGreen]

16. Israeli experts say Indian forces acted prematurely in Mumbai

Israeli experts say Indian forces acted prematurely in Mumbai

JERUSALEM: Security forces were premature in storming the besieged prime premises taken over by the terrorists in Mumbai, Israeli security experts
have opined.

Criticising the handling of the hostage crisis, the experts said "Indians should have sanitized the area and first collected intelligence about the terrorists before launching flushing out operations," a media report here said.

"In hostage situations, the first thing the forces are supposed to do is assemble at the scene and begin collecting intelligence,"a former official in Israel's famed anti-terror agency Shin Bet told 'The Jerusalem Post'.

"In this case, it appears that the forces showed up at the scene and immediately began exchanging fire with the terrorists instead of first taking control of the area," he said.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3770268...

[IndianaGreen]

17. Photo of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka

Mumbai terror victims Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, right,
and his wife, Rivka, left, performing a Jewish
wedding in India in 2006. (AP/Chabad)

Source: Haaretz

[oberliner]

18. Various sources claiming Mossad (Israeli CIA) is behind this attack

Truly frightening that people believe this, or want to believe this.

And thanks to the internet it gets spread around the world very quickly nowadays.

[DavidDvorkin]

19. "Want to believe this"

I think that's the key.