At least 125 killed in Mumbai attacks, two Turkish hostages rescued

Small groups of militants armed with automatic weapons and grenades burst into two luxury hotels, a hospital and a railway station late on Wednesday, as well as a famous cafe popular with foreign tourists, firing indiscriminately and tossing grenades. AFP said on Thursday the death toll in the attacks rose to 125, citing police's statement.Indian police told Reuters on Thursday that the hostage situation at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai had ended, but that there were still apparently hostages being held at the Trident/Oberoi. "Two Turks, Meltem and Seyfi Muezzinoglu, have been rescued and have been taken to a safe location. They are in good health," the Anatolian Agency quoted Levent Bilman, Turkey's ambassador to India, as saying.A third Turk is still being held hostage in an hotel, Bilman added.Five or six other Turkish nationals escaped from the hotels, he earlier told the agency.Turkish couple, Meltem and Seyfi Muezzinoglu, were rescued on Thursday, while an unidentified Turkish woman is still being held among the hostages.An Islamist group calling itself the "Deccan Mujahedeen" said it carried out the attacks late Wednesday in which at least 104 people, including six foreigners, were killed, more than 300 were wounded.EXTERNAL LINKS

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said forces "outside the country" were behind the coordinated attacks on luxury hotels and other high-profile targets in the country's financial hub of Mumbai.

"The well-planned and well-orchestrated attacks, probably with external linkages, were intended to create a sense of terror by choosing high-profile targets," Singh said in an address to the nation.

The militants who have killed over 100 people in Mumbai have links to the Islamist terror network al Qaeda, a top Russian security official told the RIA Novosti state news agency on Thursday.

"The Russian secret services have information that certain groups that have carried out attacks in Mumbai have contacts with Al-Qaeda," said the official, identified as a senior source at one of Russia's spy agencies.

"This includes the Lashkar-i-Tayyiba terrorist group. Fighters from this group undergo special training in Al-Qaeda camps, located on the border between Pakistan and India," the official was quoted as saying.

Earlier on Thursday a spokesman for Lashkar-i-Tayyiba, one of several groups fighting Indian rule in the border province of Kashmir, denied it was involved in the attacks.

One of the gunmen holed up in the Trident told the India TV channel by phone that the little-known terror outfit wanted an end to the persecution of Indian Muslims and the release of all fellow Islamic militants detained in India.

"Muslims in India should not be persecuted. We love this as our country but when our mothers and sisters were being killed, where was everybody?" he said from inside the hotel, which was surrounded by army commandos.

Witnesses said the gunmen had specifically chosen U.S. and British citizens to take hostage, AFP reported.

SIEGE IN A JEWISH CENTER

Another siege was in progress at Nariman House, an office building that houses a Jewish center. The chairman of the Indian Jewish Federation, Jonathan Solomon, said a rabbi and his family were being held inside by gunmen.The main Bombay Stock Exchange, itself hit by a terror attack in 1993, was also closed, as were shops, schools and businesses.An official told AFP that the England cricket team had also decided to abandon their tour of India and return home following the attacks.India has witnessed a wave of coordinated attacks in recent months.A little-known Islamic group, the Islamic Security Force-Indian Mujahedeen, claimed responsibility for serial blasts last month in India's northeast state of Assam that claimed nearly 80 lives.Six weeks earlier, the capital New Delhi had been hit by a series of bombs in crowded markets that left more than 20 dead. Responsibility for those blasts were claimed by a group calling itself the Indian Mujahedeen.