India battles to bring attack under control

Special forces stormed a Mumbai Jewish centre and battled to free guests trapped at two luxury hotels Friday, as India reeled from an audacious Islamist militant attack that left 130 people dead.

With many here quick to blame Pakistan, troops and security forces were still trying to bring the situation under control more than 36 hours later, and it was not known how many hostages and attackers, if any, remained at large.

Police said three militants had been captured and several killed at the Taj Mahal hotel, while one militant was killed at the Oberoi/Trident hotel, where at least 93 people were freed on Friday afternoon.

Heavy gunfire could be heard from inside the Taj Mahal, while a team of commandos was seen dropping into the Jewish centre by helicopter. A diplomatic source said that Israel had a role in that raid.

An Indian commando said the guerrillas had shot at almost anyone who crossed their paths during the assault on around a dozen targets, apparently launched by a group of young militants who arrived in the port by boat.

"They were the kind of people with no remorse -- anybody and whomsoever came in front of them they fired," said the soldier, a member of India's marine commando force who would not reveal his identity to reporters.

He said he had seen "blood all over" and bodies "strewn here and there," and that military response teams had tried to avoid harming the civilians who had been trapped in the hotels when the attack was launched.

"We could have got those terrorists but for so many hotel guests," he said.

As world leaders condemned the attack, Indian suspicion fell on Pakistan -- whose feared intelligence services have been implicated in attacks inside India in the past. The nuclear-armed nations have fought three wars in the past.

But India has also been grappling with homegrown unrest from Muslims and Maoists, and few details had been made public about the identity, motivations or even numbers of attackers.

One of the gunmen holed up inside the Oberoi on Thursday told India TV by phone that the Islamists had carried out the attacks, which included shooting up the Mumbai train station, because of alleged persecution of Indian Muslims.

Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, however, said elements in Pakistan -- where Islamist militants are waging a bitter and bloody insurgency -- were behind the bloodshed.

Proof to back up the accusation "cannot be disclosed at this time," Mukherjee said, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI).

It reported earlier that Indian officials were pointing the finger at the Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba -- notorious for a deadly assault on the Indian parliament in 2001 that almost pushed India and Pakistan to war.

Police officials said 130 people had been confirmed dead and that more than 300 were wounded. who survived the ordeal recounted scenes of terror and carnage.

Faisul Nagel, a security guard, said he helped people escape from the Taj Mahal by first leading them to the hotel kitchen, barricading themselves inside and arming themselves with knives and meat cleavers.

"We basically put the lights off in the restaurant just to create an element of surprise," Nagel said.

An Australian man who survived the attack at the Taj Mahal hotel and was rescued by soldiers, Paul Guest, told Australian radio there were scenes of unimaginable carnage.

"There was blood all over the floor and bits of bodies," he said.

Indian media reports said up to nine foreign nationals were among the dead. A Japanese businessman, two Australians, a Briton, a German, a Canadian and an Italian are believed to be dead.

The Israeli embassy said around 10-20 Israeli nationals were among those held hostage or trapped. Witnesses said the attackers had at first gone through the sites looking for people with US and British passports.

India's relations with the United States have flourished in recent years as the country of 1.1 billion people moved away from its close ties to Russia and embraced a that has dramatically raised growth.

Both the and Britain expressed condolences and offered to help investigate the incident in Mumbai, which has been hit by terror attacks before. Nearly 190 people were killed in train bombings in 2006.

"This is a horrific incident which has shocked and outraged people around the world," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. "We've got to do everything we can now to help the Indian authorities."

India's newspapers laid much of the blame at the door of the country's intelligence agencies, which they said had failed spectacularly in allowing a handful of gunmen to wreak such havoc and devastation.

The Indian Express singled out Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which said he had "special responsibility" because he had been "partly distracted" by modernising the country's foreign policy and its economy.

"He has not been able to make the slightest difference to our internal security," the paper said.

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