Troops search Mumbai siege hotel

来源:BBC News|http://www.bbc.co.uk/ 日期:2008-11-29

Indian troops have been searching a landmark Mumbai hotel, hours after killing the last gunmen holding out.

 

Commandos said they had killed three militants inside the Taj Mahal Palace in an assault on the huge building.

 

Wednesday's attacks on hotels, a rail station, a Jewish centre and other sites left at least 195 people dead.

 

India has blamed "elements with links to Pakistan". Pakistan has pledged to act against any group found to have links to the militants.

 

Funerals have been held for some of the dead including Indian anti-terrorist squad chief Hemant Karkare.


The number of militants involved in the co-ordinated attacks remains unclear.

Indian police say they have arrested one suspected attacker.

 

They are investigating whether a trawler found abandoned with a corpse on board is linked to the attacks.

 

And they have played down early reports suggesting that British citizens were involved in the attacks.

 

Final assault

The final assault on the Taj Mahal hotel began shortly before 0730 (0200 GMT) on Saturday.

Heavy, sustained gunfire was heard as soldiers rushed into the lobby to flush out the remaining few gunmen.


"There were three terrorists, we have killed them," the chief of India's elite National Security Guard commandos, JK Dutt, said later.

"There was [a] lot of shooting. Grenades were lobbed and explosives were used by the terrorists."

He said that the gunmen had set fire to hotel rooms whenever his commandos were bearing down on them.

Firefighters worked to contain fierce flames that billowed from the building's lower floors.

The stand-offs began late on Wednesday when small groups of gunmen armed with automatic weapons and grenades opened fire indiscriminately at sites around the city, which also included a hospital and a cafe frequented by foreigners.

Most of the dead and the 295 injured are Indian citizens. At least 22 foreigners are known to have died, including victims from Germany, Japan, Canada, Australia, Italy, Singapore, Thailand and France. One Briton, Andreas Liveras, has been killed.

A claim of responsibility for this week's attacks - the worst in India's commercial capital since nearly 200 people were killed in a series of bombings in 2006 - was made by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen.

However, most intelligence officials are keeping an open mind as the attacks have thrown up conflicting clues, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says.

Crisis meeting

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been holding an emergency meeting with his armed forces and intelligence chiefs to discuss the Mumbai attacks.

Mr Singh has already said he believes a group based outside India was behind the killings and senior Indian politicians say the only surviving gunman to be captured is from Pakistan.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari pledged to act swiftly if given any evidence of involvement by Pakistani groups or individuals in the attacks.

His foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, condemned the attacks as "barbaric".

Earlier, Pakistan reversed a decision to send its intelligence chief to India to help with the investigation, following domestic criticism. It will instead send a lower-ranking representative.


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