Five hostages, two gunmen killed in raid at Jewish center in Mumbai

As the neighbors quarreled, a lone gunmen continued to hold out at the luxury Taj hotel in Mumbai, explosions and gunfire erupting regularly as he played cat-and-mouse with the elite Indian commandos through the maze of corridors and rooms.

 

At a third site, the Trident-Oberoi Hotel, commandos killed two militants and freed 143 guests earlier in the day.

 

"The Oberoi/Trident is completely clear, there is one terrorist left in the Taj, who is giving us trouble and he could hold hostages and that is why we are very cautious," Mumbai's police chief Hasan Gafoor told Reuters.

 

Officials have been vowing to bring a quick end to the nearly two-day-long stand-off that has killed at least 124 people and wounded 284. "The toll could go up further a bit, but not a lot," Gafoor said.

 

Twenty-four bodies were found at the Oberoi/Trident hotel, the city's police chief said, after announcing rescue operations were over.

 

Yasemin Erden, the last of three Turks who were stranded in the Oberoi hotel was taken to safety by Indian security forces on Friday, Turkey's ambassador to India, Levent Bilman, said.

 

Bilman told Turkey's broadcaster NTV Erden had told him over the telephone that Indian security forces came to her room in the Oberoi/Trident hotel and took her to safety.

 

A Turkish couple, Meltem and Seyfi Muezzinoglu, holed up in their room in the same hotel were rescued unscathed on Thursday afternoon.

 

NINE MILITANTS KILLED
Nine of the Islamist militants who attacked targets across India’s financial capital Mumbai and took guests hostage in two luxury hotels have been killed, a top state official told reporters Friday.

 

"Nine militants have been killed and one arrested," Maharashtra deputy chief minister R.R. Patil said. He said 15 security personnel also died in the encounters with the militants.

 

Patil said a total of 370 were injured in the two days of multiple sieges in Mumbai.

 

Heavy gunfire lasting about 10 minutes erupted inside Mumbai's Taj Mahal Hotel on Friday, where police officials told AFP they were battling to flush out an Islamist militant who was holding out.

 

Israel's Ambassador to India said on Friday he believed six or more Israeli nationals were still being held hostage by gunmen at a Jewish centre in Mumbai.

 

"We are estimating, and it's pretty much an educated guess, somewhere around six, maybe a little bit more, but I don't have complete information on that," Mark Sofer told Times Now television.

EIGTH FOREIGNERS KILLED
A total of eight foreigners were killed and 22 others injured in the militant attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai, a top security official said Friday.

"Three of those killed were Germans, two U.S. citizens, one Japanese national, one Canadian and one Australian," India’s Internal Security Secretary M. L. Kumawat said.

He said the information was based on reports from commandos flushing out an unspecified number of gunmen from two Mumbai hotels and a Jewish cultural center.

Among the injured were three Germans, one Chinese, two Americans, five Britons, one Norwegian, one Spanish, one Canadian, one Finnish, one Australian, one Italian, two from Oman and one from the Philippines, he said.

The nationality of two other injured foreigners had not yet been established.

Mumbai, a city of 18 million, is the nerve-center of India's growing economic might and home to the "Bollywood" film industry.

Hindu-dominated India, which has a sizeable Muslim minority, has been hit by militant attacks for decades. But this strike seemed aimed at crippling its ability to draw foreign investment.

INDIA POINTS PAKISTANI LINKS
India's Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said initial evidence in the Mumbai attacks showed the militants had Pakistani links. The foreign minister also urged Pakistan to distmantle infrastructure that aids militants.Â

"Preliminary evidence, prima facie evidence, indicates elements with links to Pakistan are involved," Mukherjee was quoted by Reuters as telling a news conference.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Friday that India and Pakistan should join hands to defeat a common enemy, and urged New Delhi not to play politics over the attacks in Mumbai.Â

"Do not bring politics into this issue. This is a collective issue. We are facing a common enemy and we should join hands to defeat the enemy," the foreign minister told reporters in the Indian town of Ajmer.

An estimated 25 men armed with assault rifles and grenades -- at least some of whom arrived by sea -- had fanned out across Mumbai Wednesday night to attack sites popular with tourists and businessmen, including the city's top two luxury hotels.

The attacks brought the biggest chaos to the city since serial bombings in 1993, blamed on the city's Muslim crime syndicates, killed 260 people and injured hundreds