Saturday, November 29, 2008

Update: Six Israeli and Jewish hostages murdered at Chabad Center, Mumbai in shutdown for second terror wave

November 29, 2008, 9:04 AM (GMT+02:00)
Islamist terrorists murdered six Israelis, including Rabbi Gavriel, 29, and Rivka, 28, Holzman, taken hostage in the Chabad Center during their assault on Mumbai Wednesday, Nov. 26. Two more victims identified were Betzion Chroman, who held dual US-Israeli citizenship, and Leibisch Teitelbaum, an American from Brooklyn. Chabad Center was seized together with two big hotels and other high-profile targets across the city

Atrocities began coming to light Friday night when Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak told Channel 1 TV that some of the bodies bore signs they had been bound hand and foot and two Israeli women had been killed hours before the men.

Four Israelis are still missing in Mumbai as the overall death toll rises to 195. Four were rescued with the 100 hostages released from the Oberoi Hotel, where 24 bodies were discovered in the rooms.

Saturday morning, the Indian government said the Taj Palace Hotel, the last of three sites seized by Islamist terrorists in Mumbai, was under control and all the terrorists were dead. Blasts and shots rang out as police went through the rooms in the vast compound.

Mumbai is shut down - schools, shops, traffic - against a second terrorist wave as police armed with machine guns patrol the streets. Friday, Islamist gunmen returned to their first target, the city's main rail station for a second attack. DEBKAfile reported earlier that some of the terrorists had remained on the loose away their first targets to continue their "mission."

As the investigation began, the FBI sent a team to join the Indian probe. Islamabad is fending off allegations that Pakistani elements were involved with offers of full collaboration into the inquiry. The UK press is highlighting the "British connection" arising from the discovery that some of the terrorists were Pakistani British citizens.

In New York, Friday night, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky voiced the outrage of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and conveyed condolences to the families of everyone murdered in Mumbai. NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said the atrocity reminded us of how connected the world is in the face of terror.

Indian commanders reported that Israeli hostages were killed in the course of the commando raid which began early Friday, Nov. 28. Choppers dropped soldiers onto the roof of the Chabad Center which caters to Israeli and Jewish visitors to the city. Later a big hole was blown in an outer wall.

Indian investigators are examining a satellite phone and GPS map recovered from a trawler, the Kubar, floating in the Arabian Sea. The crew was missing from the vessel except for its master whose body was found with bound limbs and his throat slit.

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