10:31 PM
WASHINGTON: Two US citizens, Alan and Naomi Scherr of Virginia, were killed in the attacks on sites around Mumbai, their spiritual center announced Friday.Friday, November 28, 2008
Two US citizens killed in Mumbai attacks
WASHINGTON: Two US citizens, Alan and Naomi Scherr of Virginia, were killed in the attacks on sites around Mumbai, their spiritual center announced Friday.
17 foreigners killed in Mumbai attacks
NEW DELHI: At least 17 foreigners died in the militant attacks in Mumbai, according to announcements by officials in India and in the victims' home countries."Three of those killed were Germans, one Japanese national, one Canadian and one Australian," India's Internal Security Secretary M. L. Kumawat said on Friday.
Kumawat said the information was based on reports from commandos who fought gunmen in two Mumbai hotels and a Jewish cultural centre.
The bodies of five Israeli hostages were also recovered later Friday from the Jewish centre after it was stormed by Indian troops, an Israeli diplomat said.
The US State Department in Washington said two US citizens, a father and daughter, were also among those killed in the attacks.
It identified them as Alan and Naomi Scherr and said they were members of the Synchronicity Foundation, a meditation community in Virginia.
In Paris, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a statement that two French nationals had died.
The Singapore foreign ministry said Lo Hoei Yen, 28, was killed after she was taken hostage in the Oberoi/Trident hotel.
The previous day a British-Cypriot businessman was named by the British government as among the dead.
Andreas Liveras, 73, was killed hours after he gave an interview describing how he was trapped in the Taj Mahal hotel.
The overall death toll stood at least 130 on Friday evening, but was expected to rise as little information was available about the various scenes of carnage.
More foreign deaths were likely to come to light as the security operation progressed.
Among the injured were victims from China, Oman, the Philippines and several European countries, officials said.
Pakistan to send ISI chief to India
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday extended Pakistan’s support to India in jointly combating extremism and terrorism and offered to send its intelligence chief to help with Mumbai investigation. Prime Minister Gilani telephoned his Indian counterpart Dr. Manmohan Singh and strongly condemned the acts of terrorism in Mumbai.The Prime Minister expressed sympathy on behalf of the people and government of Pakistan with Indian Prime Minister, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, people of India and the families of those who lost their near and dear ones in “the unfortunate incidents of barbarism.”
Gilani termed the incident “inhuman and condemnable from all aspects.”
He said Pakistan too was a victim of terrorism and appreciated the fact that Indian Prime Minister was the first one to telephone him after the Marriott hotel blast.
“Dr. Singh told the Prime Minister that preliminary reports point towards Karachi and stressed the need for increased intelligence sharing and cooperation in order to evolve a joint strategy against terrorism and extremism,” PM’s spokesman Zahid Bashir told a foreign news agency.
Dr. Singh requested the Prime Minster Gilani to send Director General of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to India for exchange of information in this regard.
The Prime Minister accepted the request and said that after working out modalities by both the governments, the ISI chief will visit India at the earliest, Bashir said.
The Prime Minister also extended his government’s full support for jointly combating extremism and terrorism and also offered help in investigating the incident.
Mumbai militants showed no remorse: commando
MUMBAI: An Indian marine commando who battled militants room to room in a Mumbai hotel said on Friday the guerrillas showed no remorse and fired at anyone who moved.
"They were the kind of people with no remorse -- anybody and whomsoever came in front of them they fired," the black-clad masked commando, who belonged to India's crack Marine Commando Force known as MARCOS, told reporters.
"We could have got those terrorists but for so many hotel guests," he said in Mumbai.
"The bodies were lying strewn here and there. There was blood all over and in trying to avoid the casualty of those civilians, we had to be that much more careful," he said.
"They were the kind of people with no remorse -- anybody and whomsoever came in front of them they fired," the black-clad masked commando, who belonged to India's crack Marine Commando Force known as MARCOS, told reporters.
"We could have got those terrorists but for so many hotel guests," he said in Mumbai.
"The bodies were lying strewn here and there. There was blood all over and in trying to avoid the casualty of those civilians, we had to be that much more careful," he said.
