Day Three of the Mumbai Terror Attacks

As hard as it is to grasp the scope and seriousness of the situation, keep in mind that the terrorists are still operating inside Mumbai and the Indian authorities are still trying to secure the city and last remaining locations where the terrorists are holed up.

At least seven of the terrorists were British and there are concerns that the attacks may have links back to Great Britain and additional terror cells within the United Kingdom:

British-born Pakistanis were among the Mumbai terrorists, Indian government sources claimed today, as the death toll rose to at least 155.

As many as seven of the terrorists may have British connections and some could be from Leeds and Bradford where London's July 7 bombers lived, one source said.

Two Britons were among eight gunmen being held, according to Mumbai's chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. At least nine others are reportedly dead.

The eight arrested were captured by commandos after they stormed two hotels and a Jewish centre to free hostages today. Despite the Indian authorities' assurances that the situation was under control, the siege continued at the Taj Mahal hotel and explosions could still be heard in central Mumbai.

One security official said: 'There is growing concern about British involvement in the attacks.'

But Gordon Brown has urged caution. He emerged from a conversation with India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to say there was no suggestion of a British link.

More than 150 people have been killed, including two Americans and five Jewish hostages at the Chabad house. That includes the head of the Chabad house and his wife, both of whom were originally from Brooklyn:

Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, who ran the movement's local headquarters in Mumbai, India, were killed during a hostage standoff at the center, said Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin, a spokesman for the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

The center was one of 10 sites attacked beginning Wednesday.

The couple's toddler son, Moshe Holtzberg, was rescued Thursday by an employee and is now with his grandparents.

``Gabi and Rivky Holtzberg made the ultimate sacrifice,'' said Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch.

``As emissaries to Mumbai, Gabi and Rivky gave up the comforts of the West in order to spread Jewish pride in a corner of the world that was a frequent stop for throngs of Israeli tourists. Their selfless love will live on with all the people they touched. We will continue the work they started.''

Sadly, the Taj Hotel still isn't under complete control, and the authorities have yet to fully sweep the building and account for all those inside. Two or three terrorists remain holed up inside the hotel even now. Indeed, it is possible that some of those killed or injured in the past two days may have been the result of the rescuers unable to differentiate between the terrorists and the victims.

Indeed, the terrorists appeared to be well versed in the layout and operations of the hotels. That's in addition to being heavily armed and loaded for bear.

I can only hope that the Indian authorities take a real hard look at the training and tactics for their local police and their special weapons and tactics services to deal with this kind of situation. That includes the national security forces who were called in to reinforce and take back the hotels and secure other locations.

In New York City, the ESU is called in to provide tactical support for situations that the police can't handle on a normal basis, and they have heavy weapons, additional body armor and training to deal with these kinds of situations. Even the regular police force is equipped with bullet proof vests, which a review of photos and videos from the first hours of the attacks was not in evidence among many of the emergency responders, who were often wearing little more than their standard uniforms and rifles.

Meanwhile, US, British and Israeli intel agencies are ramping up assistance to India to help pinpoint who was behind the attacks and what role, if any, was played by Pakistan, although the leading suspect is the Islamic terror group HuJI, which operates out of Pakistan. The concern is that there might be rogue elements inside Pakistan's own government or the ISI that might attempt to sabotage any rapprochement between Pakistan and India.

Unprecedented intelligence cooperation involving investigating agencies and spy outfits of India, United States, United Kingdom and
Israel has got underway to crack the method and motive behind the Mumbai terrorist massacre, now widely blamed on Islamist radicals who appeared to have all four countries on their hit list when they arrived on the shores of India.

Investigators, forensic analysts, counter-terrorism experts and spymasters from agencies the four countries are converging in New Delhi and Mumbai to put their heads, resources, and skills together to understand the evolving nature of the beast. The spy chief of the Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI) is also being summoned to India to help with the investigations because of the widely-held view that the terrorists' footprints go back to Pakistan.

The Bush administration has taken the lead to forge cooperation, partly out of concern that charges by India that the terror plot has Pakistani fingerprints could setback fast-improving government-to-government and people-to-people ties between the two countries, officials said.

But there is an implicit recognition both in New Delhi and Washington, and also other world capitals, that Pakistan's hard-line Army and its spy agency are spoilers of the honeymoon between the civilian governments and the people of India and Pakistan. Hence the summons to the country's chief spook, Ahmad Shuja Pasha, an acolyte of the new Army Chief Pervez Kiyani, himself a former ISI chief.

Meanwhile, while some Muslim groups have moved to condemn the heinous and vile terrorist acts, other dispicable Islamists are actually justifying the attacks supporting the attacks or somehow blaming Israel or the US for the attacks.

Given that there are now links to individuals with a British background, it is possible that the focus on who was behind the attacks will shift away from HuJI and on to al Qaeda, which has been desperately trying to carry out a mass casualty attack to remain relevant in the global jihad against the West.

This attack is different in many ways from prior attacks against the Indian people. The kind of sophistication and coordination takes time and training to accomplish, and at least 25 terrorists may have been involved in the attacks on 10 targets around the city. There are also questions about how the terrorists entered the city, including looking at reports that they entered by boat.

Two ships that have been boarded are strongly suspected of being involved in the attacks: the Kuber, an Indian fishing boat, and the MV Alpha, a Vietnamese cargo ship. Both ships appear to have been directly involved. The Kuber was hijacked on Nov. 13, and its captain was found murdered. Four crewmen are reported to still be missing.

Indian security officials found what they believe is evidence linking the boat to the attack, as well as linking the attackers to Pakistan. "A GPS map of south Mumbai was found along with a satellite phone on the ship, Coast Guard officials confirmed," The Times of India reported. "There were reports that this phone was used to make calls to Karachi immediately before the shootings began in Mumbai."

Indian police also detained three terrorists from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, a terror group closely allied with al Qaeda. The three men are said to be Pakistani nationals, and claimed to have been part of a 12-man team that launched from the MV Alpha. They said the MV Alpha departed from Karachi.

Another Indian official said that it is "suspected that the Pakistan Marine Agency helped the terrorists hijack the trawler (the Kuber)," although this has not been confirmed. Another unconfirmed report indicated the Kuber originated from Karachi, Pakistan.

UPDATE:
According to reports, one of the terrorists checked into the Taj hotel and began stockpiling weapons and explosives in his room four days before the attacks commenced.

The Intelligence Bureau, India's domestic spy agency, said it had detained a Muslim militant, Abu Islami, found to have checked into the five-star Oberoi/Trident hotel four days before the rest of the attackers landed in Mumbai by boat.

"He used the room to store explosives" including 40 hand grenades "and weapons for a prolonged operation", a top Intelligence Bureau official told AFP on condition he not be named.

"We are asking him who supplied the weapons, the explosives, the Chinese-made grenades. He came in much before the main body of the terrorists landed by boat" on Wednesday evening, he said.

At least 150 people have died so far and more than 350 others have been injured in the attacks in Mumbai.

The Intelligence Bureau also said credit cards and one identity card from the Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius were recovered from the militant's room.

That is highly suggestive that the terrorists were busy casing their targets in advance of the attacks and were waiting for the right time to strike with all their fury.