Mumbai attacks: 60 hours of chaos and carnage

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MUMBAI, Nov 29 (AFP): For three nights, a small group of young but highly-trained Islamic militants managed to transform India's economic capital into a war zone, killing indiscriminately and hunting foreign hostages while holding off crack commandos.
Indian security officials said at least a dozen attackers slipped into Mumbai by sea in two small dinghies Wednesday evening, having been dropped off near the coast by a larger ship.
Indian media and intelligence sources said other militants may have already been pre-positioned in the city, including in two targetted luxury hotels, along with stockpiled arms and ammunition.
The siege was finally ended 60 hours later, with at least 195 dead and 295 wounded.
Among the first targets was the Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station, where at least two men unleashed automatic weapons fire and lobbed grenades into a crowd of travellers in the main waiting hall.
They left behind a pile of nearly 50 bodies -- and images of their own calm, composed faces caught by security cameras.
Evading capture as Indian security forces rushed to the station, the gunmen then attacked a charitable hospital for women and children, the Cama Hospital, shooting indiscriminately.
Again police responded, including the head of Mumbai's Anti-Terror Squad (ATS), Hemant Karkare, who was shot dead outside the hospital along with two other senior officers.
Another group struck at the Cafe Leopold, one of Mumbai's best-known restaurants and a favoured haunt of tourists and expatriates.
"They took weapons out of their sacks, lobbed three grenades and began shooting at anything that moved with their automatic weapons," Johana, a 24-year-old French tourist, told AFP.
Another group used a hijacked police vehicle for drive-by shootings, before moving on to the main targets -- symbols of Mumbai's wealth and multicultural character.
The objectives were two luxury hotels -- the Taj Mahal, one of Mumbai's most famous landmarks, and the Oberoi/Trident -- plus a Jewish centre and hostel for Israeli visitors.
The first sign guests and staff at the Taj had of the coming assault was the sound of gunshots and blasts from the hotel's swimming pool area.
Once inside, the gunmen began rounding up hostages.
"They were very young, like boys really, wearing jeans and T-shirts," one British hotel guest said of the attackers. "They said they wanted anyone with British and American passports."
The militants then made for the upper floors of the hotel, shooting at anyone in their way.
"It was really terrifying," said Brooke Satchwell, a 28-year-old Australian actress who hid inside a cupboard. "There were people getting shot in the corridor. There was someone dead outside the bathroom."
With the attack in motion, an unknown group calling itself the "Deccan Mujahedeen" said it was responsible.
The gunmen in both hotels had the better of initial clashes with the security forces, who struggled to respond to the multiple hostage situations.
It was then the turn of army commandos to move in and battle the militants in the hotels floor by floor, room by room.
Throughout the day, Indian news channels switched endlessly from location to location as gunfire and explosions were heard, fires broke out and traumatised hotel guests made sporadic escapes to safety.
In the evening, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed a stunned nation on television, vowing a tough response and warning "neighbours" who harboured militants -- a clear reference to arch-rival Pakistan.
As night fell again, Mumbai was under a security lockdown with the areas around the hostage sites cordoned off by the army.
Frequent reports that all the gunmen had been flushed out were repeatedly scotched by fresh gunfire and the sight of special forces units running into the hotel buildings.
As dawn broke Friday, the focus switched to the office-residential complex housing the Jewish centre, as masked commandos abseiled onto the roof from a hovering helicopter.
They killed two gunmen -- only to find five dead Israeli hostages, including a US-based rabbi and his wife. The couple's son Moshe, who turned two on Saturday, was rescued from the attack by their nanny.
For the first time, the Indian government directly blamed arch-rival Pakistan for the militant attack.
"According to preliminary information, some elements in Pakistan are responsible," Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.
A number of Indian officials suggested the militants were from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba -- notorious for a deadly assault on the Indian parliament in 2001 that almost pushed India and Pakistan to war.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said his country had "nothing to do with the attacks in Mumbai," and Pakistan's foreign minister appealed to India not to get "sucked" into a blame game and put the arch-rivals on a dangerous path to confrontation.
The other five-star hotel that was attacked -- the Oberoi/Trident -- was finally declared clear of militants late Friday, with scores of trapped guests rescued and 24 bodies found.
But in the historic Taj Mahal hotel, the battle raged through the night in a cacophony of intense gunfire and large explosions.
Shortly after dawn, commandos killed the last three remaining gunmen, ending the devastating episode.
"We said there were three terrorists ... and we have got three bodies," said J.K. Dutt, head of India's National Security Guard.
A total of 195 people are confirmed to have been killed and 295 others wounded. Twenty-two foreigners were killed, included the Israelis, five Americans, two French nationals, two Australians, two Canadians, a German, a Japanese, a British Cypriot, an Italian, a Singaporean and a Thai.