Posted on 11/28/2008 7:36:40 AM PST by Cinnamon Girl
(IsraelNN.com) After more than 40 hours and a day-long siege by Indian commandos against Islamist terrorists holed up in the Mumbai Chabad House, the operation ended with the discovery that five of the Jewish hostages had been murdered by their captors, including Chabad-Lubavitch emissary, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka.
Foreign Ministry sources told Israel National News just minutes before the start of the Sabbath in Israel that the victims also included two women who had been trapped on the top floor with the Holtzbergs, as well as a fifth unnamed person.
Indian television had reported jubilantly an hour earlier that the siege of the Nariman Chabad House in Mumbai was over, and that all the terrorists were killed -- but suddenly, in a dramatic reversal, announced that authorities ordered the wildly cheering crowd to move back: it wasn't really over after all.
Government commandos had begun to exit the badly damaged building smiling broadly and flashing the "thumbs up" sign at the applauding crowd in the street, with one commander telling the media that the fierce fire fight was finished, with three terrorists dead. A loud explosion, probably from a grenade or rocket launcher, had been heard moments earlier on the top floor of the five-story building, which was badly damaged.
The situation was termed "utter chaos" by journalists, as darkness combined with crowds and confusion to create a mess for security forces who were trying to figure out whether there were terrorists left in the building, and if so, where they were and how to either capture or kill them.
The Foreign Ministry confirmed that two Israeli hostages have been freed in Mumbai after spending more than 30 hours holed up in the Oberoi-Trident Hotel. The two businessmen, who were identified only by their last names, Weingarten and Zamir, were rescued Friday morning at approximately 7:30 a.m. Israel time.
According to Ministry spokesman Andy David, neither was injured and both are in good condition following their harrowing ordeal. "I can confirm that they're out, they're free... they made contact with our Consulate, our people saw them and they're okay," he told Israel National News, adding that both planned to return to Israel but that a timeline had not been set.
The Foreign Ministry firmly denied the numerous and repeated reports by Indian media that Jewish hostages had been rescued from the Chabad House.
"The reports are simply untrue," said David. "No one has been freed there, and no one has come out. We don't know what the situation is inside. There is no confirmation of the number of people there either," he emphasized.
"There are Israelis who stop in there at Chabad all the time, who can visit, get a meal, join a prayer... we have no way to know many people were there," he said. "There is a lot of battlefield fog, you know, we get a lot of reports, 'It's over,' then, 'It's not over,' then, 'It's over,' again."
David was grim regarding the condition of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife. "Of course we are very worried for them, but we have no information at this point," he said.
An Israeli media report of four bodies being found in the building was brushed aside. "These were old reports by the local woman who brought out the Holtzbergs' one and a half-year-old son when she came out early Thursday morning," said the Foreign Ministry spokesman. The family's babysitter, Sandra Samuel reported when she escaped that four people, including the Holtzbergs, were lying unconscious. She remained with little Moshe until his grandparents arrived from Israel early Friday morning to care for him.
David also debunked a rumor that an Israel Air Force helicopter had been seen flying around the roof of the Oberoi-Trident Hotel late Thursday night. "Not true," he said. "Absolutely not. No Israeli security or military units or personnel or anything of the sort are in India, nor are there plans to send them. Fruitful imagination," he added.
Commandos who entered the building Friday morning were moving "very slowly, deliberately, through each floor" reported an NDTV news anchor, who stressed that the cameraman was deliberately "shying away from showing any close-up visuals or pictures that might give away the position of the commandos to the terrorists."
Operations at the Oberoi-Trident Hotel has been declared over. Reporter noted that relatives crowding around the hotel are "scared and frustrated," adding, "They don't understand why they don't have any news of their loved ones if the operation is over," she said. Inside commandos continue to methodically search from room to room, trying to determine how many bodies are still inside.
Indian army sources have claimed that the terrorists had received commando training from the Pakistan Army and had been provided with boats and logistical support by the Mumbai underworld, according to India's IBN Live television news.
The Chabad House was one of 10 sites that were struck by some 25 terrorists who apparently infiltrated into Mumbai by sea and then fanned out through the city.
Statement from World Lubavitch HQ Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky of Chabad World Headquarters in New York released a statement on behalf of the movement overnight:
Once again, terrorism has reared its evil head, this time in Mumbai (Bombay) India. Our Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Community Center, located in Nariman House in the Colaba district, is still occupied by the terrorists.
As of Thursday (Nov. 27) evening, we have not yet heard from our representatives in Mumbai, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, who head the center. The Holtzbergs 18-month old son, Moshe, was rescued early Thursday morning and is in the custody of trusted friends.
Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters, through its global contacts, continues to vigilantly monitor this tragic situation as it develops.
We pray for the speedy, safe release of all the hostages and those yet missing, and for the healing and complete recovery of all those wounded. We express heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of each of those who have been brutally murdered in this senseless barbaric attack.
There was also grave concern over the fate of at least two other Jews as well, both of whom had flown to India on business to serve as Kosher food supervisors in Indian plants that provide ingredients to kosher food companies in the U.S.
Rabbi Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum of Jerusalem, the son of the Volover Rebbe of Boro Park and son-in-law of the head of the Toldos Avraham Yitzhak Chassidic sect, was in Mumbai and hasn't been heard from, as is the case with his co-worker Ben Tzion Korman of Bat Yam. It is believed, however, that at least one or both of the men may have escaped harm.
May Hashem avenge their blood.
Destroy it utterly.
L
Animal scum.
These moon-god worshipping death cultists seem bent on a Holy War. We should give it to them. To paraphrase Bull Halsey, by the time we’re finished with them, the only place arabic will be spoken is hell.
Nothing more than cockroaches. Sick. Just sick.
I guess after every attack of this nature, the civilized world would fire bomb a Muslim city won’t solve anything?
Except make us feel better!!!
These people are cowards. They sneak in like rats in their burrows and kill for no other reason than ideaolgy. Killing innocent people at a blink of an eye. No remorse. They are in every country and every city. God help us.
We have those savages here in the United States and a closet Muslim as President-elect. Welcome to the real world of American Liberalism which is also, IMO, insanity and a mental disease. Add Pelosi and Reid and their cohorts in the US Congress to that list of insane Liberal Americans. These clueless Liberals will destroy all of us and our country for power, ego, and greed. Wake up and smell the Liberals!
The first mass murders of the Obama Age.
An emboldened Al Queda reasserts its evil self.
And the US media has a total news blackout on the religion of the assassins or the term “al Queda.” They are “militants” you see. I thought that term was reserved for ACORN or Bill Ayers.
‘no remorse’ isn’t right.
They are orgasmic over it.
Remember that the American presodent-elect is on record saying that if things start to turn ugly he will stand with the moslems.
The American electorate has chosen for its leader a man who has in essence said he will side with America’s enemies if the American people start to fight back against the evil that is islam.
Idiocy.
Yes, but the last time they used swords and rode on horseback.
Many more people will die or suffer when the enemy wears civilian clothing. Perhaps millions more.
“They are ‘militants’ you see.”
Hell, just wait until the MSM start to refer to them as “freedom fighters.”
“Savages. It’s high time the world dealt with this filth that calls itself islam.
Destroy it utterly.”
How? Do you have a revolutionary new weapon that seeks out just Muslims and leaves others unhurt?
Deepest sympathies to the Holtzbergs’ family and friends, and to the Chabad community. What a terrible thing.
This is no time to be precious about locating the exact individuals directly involved in this particular terrorist attack. Those responsible include anyone anywhere in the world who smiled in response to the annihilation of patriots like Barbara Olson.
We don’t need long investigations of the forensic evidence to determine with scientific accuracy the person or persons who ordered this specific attack. We don’t need an “international coalition.” We don’t need a study on “terrorism.” We certainly didn’t need a congressional resolution condemning the attack this week.
The nation has been invaded by a fanatical, murderous cult. And we welcome them. We are so good and so pure we would never engage in discriminatory racial or “religious” profiling.
People who want our country destroyed live here, work for our airlines, and are submitted to the exact same airport shakedown as a lumberman from Idaho. This would be like having the Wehrmacht immigrate to America and work for our airlines during World War II. Except the Wehrmacht was not so bloodthirsty.
“All of our lives” don’t need to change, as they keep prattling on TV. Every single time there is a terrorist attack or a plane crashes because of pilot error Americans allow their rights to be contracted for no purpose whatsoever.
The airport kabuki theater of magnetometers, asinine questions about whether passengers “packed their own bags,” and the hostile, lumpen mesomorphs ripping open our luggage somehow allowed over a dozen armed hijackers to board four American planes almost simultaneously on Bloody Tuesday. (Did those fabulous security procedures stop a single hijacker anyplace in America that day?)
Airports scrupulously apply the same laughably ineffective airport harassment to Suzy Chapstick as to Muslim hijackers. It is preposterous to assume every passenger is a potential crazed homicidal maniac. We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now.
We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren’t punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That’s war. And this is war. - Ann Coulter
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