News

After India's black-clad commandos finally managed to gun down the remaining terrorists at the Taj hotel on Saturday, the gruesomeness of the 60-hour siege was evident.

On some sides of the hotel, shards of broken glass littered the ground. Curtains that were knotted together – and doubled-up as ropes for people to escape – dangled out of several windows. Several rooms were charred as terrorists used fire as a diversionary tactic to distract Indian snipers.

Paramedics, firemen and bomb squads, wearing surgical masks, combed every room, clearing the hotel of dead bodies and any residual threats.

“You cannot imagine the extent of the damage inside the hotel,” said fireman Sanjay Jadhav, 36, who is involved in the mopping-up operations.

“There's complete devastation. This will take years to fix.”

The owners of the Taj and the Trident-Oberoi have vowed to rebuild their hotels.

Considering the scale of the mayhem, it was previously suspected that a couple of dozen terrorists were behind the attacks.

However J.K. Dutt, the director-general of India's National Security Guard, revealed on Saturday there were only eight terrorists in total involved in the operation that seized the two hotels and a Mumbai Jewish centre on Wednesday night.

There were four terrorists at the Taj, three of whom were gunned down, and one whose charred body was found next to an AK-47 riffle. There were also two at the Oberoi, and two at the Nariman House, Mr. Dutt told a local news channel.

The Associated Press reported a total of ten gunmen were involved in the attacks.

At least 195 people died in the attacks across India's financial capital, including two Canadians and 16 other foreigners.

A previously unknown Muslim group with a name suggesting origins inside India claimed responsibility for the attack, but Indian officials said the sole surviving gunman was from Pakistan and pointed a finger of blame at their neighbour and rival.

Meanwhile some Indian citizens are expressing outrage over how terrorists managed to sidle into Mumbai via a porous coast line. The Indian government is also beginning to face strong criticism over how could a handful of men carry on a days-long siege despite the might of the entire Indian security forces.

“We are entering an age of terrorism and urban guerrilla warfare,” said Bharat Karnad, a New Delhi based-defence expert. “And there's an urgent need to subdue it.”

Some 295 people also were wounded in the violence that started when heavily armed assailants attacked 10 sites across Mumbai on Wednesday night. At least 20 soldiers and police were among the dead.

Orange flames and black smoke engulfed the landmark 565-room Taj Mahal hotel after dawn Saturday as Indian forces ended the siege there in a hail of gunfire, just hours after elite commandos stormed a Jewish centre and found at least eight hostages dead.

The bodies of New York Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, were found at the Jewish centre. Their son, Moshe, who turned 2 on Saturday, was scooped up by an employee Thursday as she fled the building. Two Israelis and another American were also killed in the house, said Rabbi Zalman Schmotkin, a spokesman for the Chabad Lubavitch movement, which ran the center.

Among the foreigners killed in the attacks were six Americans, according to the U.S. Embassy. The dead also included Germans, Canadians, Israelis and nationals from Britain, Italy, Japan, China, Thailand, Australia and Singapore.

A group called Deccan Mujahideen, which alludes to a region in southern India traditionally ruled by Muslim kings, claimed responsibility for the attack, but Indian officials pointed the finger at neighbouring Pakistan.

Maharshta state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told reporters one of the gunmen was captured alive by security forces.

“We are interrogating him,” he said.

Mr. Deshmukh's deputy, R.R. Patil, identified the gunman as a Pakistani national, Mohammad Ajmal Qasam.

The gunmen had sophisticated equipment and used “GPS, mobile and satellite phones to communicate,” Mr. Patil said.

“They were constantly in touch with a foreign country,” he said, refusing to give further details.

On Friday, India's foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, told reporters that evidence indicated “some elements in Pakistan are responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks.”

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani insisted his country was not involved.

On Saturday the Indian navy said it was investigating whether a trawler found drifting off the coast of Mumbai, with a bound corpse on board, was used in the attack.

Navy spokesman Capt. Manohar Nambiar said the trawler, named Kuber, had been found Thursday and was brought to Mumbai. Officials said they believe the boat had sailed from a port in the neighbouring state of Gujarat.

Indian security officers believe many of the gunmen may have reached the city using a black and yellow rubber dinghy found near the site of the attacks.

On Friday, commandos killed the last two gunmen inside the luxury Oberoi hotel, where 24 bodies had been found, authorities said.

But in the most dramatic of the counterstrikes Friday, masked Indian commandos rappelled from a helicopter to the rooftop of the Chabad Lubavitch Jewish centre.

For nearly 12 hours, explosions and gunfire erupted from the five-story building as the commandos fought their way downward, while thousands of people gathered behind barricades in the streets to watch. At one point, Indian forces fired a rocket at the building.

The attackers were well-prepared, carrying large bags of almonds to keep up their energy during a long siege. One backpack found contained 400 rounds of ammunition.

India has been shaken repeatedly by terror attacks blamed on Muslim militants in recent years, but most were bombings striking crowded places: markets, street corners, parks. Mumbai — one of the most highly populated cities in the world with some 18 million people — was hit by a series of bombings in July 2006 that killed 187 people.