Israeli Hostages Still Held Incommunicado

(IsraelNN.com) Some 15 to 25 Israeli hostages were still being held incommunicado as the siege by Al Qaeda-linked Islamist terrorists entered its twenty-first hour.

A 45-minute exchange of intense gunfire between India government forces and terrorists at the Oberoi Trident Hotel located near Mumbai's Chabad House has led to the rescue of at least a dozen tourists who were trapped in the upper floors of the luxury hotel Thursday evening. There were no Israelis among the rescued.

Five terrorists holed up in Mumbai's Nariman House building housing the city's Chabad House offered to negotiate with India's government for the lives of the Jewish hostages they are holding. Approximately eight Israelis are being held captive in the Chabad House, and Israel's Foreign Ministry estimated that another 10 to 15 Israelis are being held hostage in other locations around the city as well, including an undetrmined number at the Oberoi Trident Hotel.

A spokesman for the terrorists who identified himself to a local television station as "Imran" complained about government treatment of Mulims in Kashmir.

"Ask the government to talk to us and we will release the hostages," he said, speaking in Urdu with what was described as a Kashmiri accent. "Are you aware how many people have been killed in Kashmir? Are you aware how your army has killed Muslims? Are you aware how many of them have been killed in Kashmir this week?"

Meanwhile, government commandos in black caps moved into position for a final assault on the building where the Israelis are being held hostage, including a Chabad rabbi and his wife. They have flooded the entire area with light, hoping to be able to see what is going on the building. "They have a lot of ammunition on them and that is why they are considered so very, very dangerous and the commandos are proceeding with such caution," said one journalist.

"It could be a long haul," warned security officials in Mumbai, India as they grappled with the dilemma of how much information to release to the media while making plans to attack the Islamist terrorists who were holding hundreds of British, American and Israeli nationals hostage across the city. "This particular place has many access points and so it is a complex operation to secure it," explained an NDTV reporter.

Sky News reported that two powerful explosions were heard around midday Jerusalem time on Thursday from the Nariman House building which houses Mumbai's Chabad House. An estimated total of 25 terrorists struck approximately nine different locations across Mumbai Wednesday night, taking hostages that included top CEOs, tourists and businesspeople. Journalists in India referred to the attack as "Mumbai's 9/11."

Hundreds of commandos surrounded the building and had killed one terrorist. One terrorist from Faridkot, Pakistan was captured, alive, at the nearby Taj Mahal Hotel.

Chabad-Lubavitch emissary Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka were both reported unconscious, as were several of the Israelis, according to a babysitter who managed to escape with the couple's one and a half-year-old son Moshe, and called the family shortly after the siege began. The little boy is currently being cared for at the home of the Israeli Consulate's security officer.

Two kosher food supervisors who apparently had just arrived in the country, Rabbi Bentzion Chroman, who lives in Israel and Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, son of the Volover Rebbe of Boro Park, New York, were also being held hostage.

Rivka Holtzberg's parents, Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg and his wife Yehudit are currently flying out to be on the scene. Rabbi Rosenberg is the principal of Migdal Ohr Girls' High School in Migdal Emek, which was founded by his brother-in-law, Rabbi Yitzchak David Grossman, winner of the Israel Prize and numerous other public awards.

A previously unknown Muslim terrorist group linked to the international Al Qaeda terrorist organization, calling itself the Deccan Mujahedin, claimed responsibility for the massive multi-site terror attack carried out late Wednesday night in the city formerly known as Bombay. Mumbai is home to some 15 million people and is India's largest city.

The terrorists struck two luxury hotels frequented by Americans and British nationals, the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Oberoi Trident Hotel as well as the city's largest train station, the Metro Theater and the Cama Hospital with automatic weapons and grenades. Intelligence sources said the level of sophisticated training and weapons employed by the terrorists made it clear that they were not local criminals. The terrorists were armed with AK-47 assault rifles and grenades.

Also among the nine sites struck by the group throughout "the city that never sleeps" was the Chabad House, a popular stop for Israeli tourists passing through the area who are provided with kosher food and Jewish programs there.

Three top police officials were among at least 101 dead in the attacks, including Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) Chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar, reported IBN News, which said Karkare had received death threats in phone calls at his home within the past several days. More than 250 people were reported wounded in the attacks, and nearly 200 reported taken hostage in various locations around the city.

The terrorists demanded that India release "all mujahedins," telling a local television station that "only after that will we release the people." Several other Israelis have maintained telephone contact from their eighth-floor hotel rooms. The Chabad website reported that "the situation is grim."

American and British nationals were being separated out from among other foreigners and held as hostages, according to one British citizen who told Sky News television that he had watched as a gunman asked a group of some 40 hostages for their country of origin. Those who were from Italy, he said, were released, but British and American citizens were held.

British European Parliament Member Sajjad Karim told the television network before his cell phone went dead that he was barricaded in a darkened restaurant in the basement of the Oberoi Trident Hotel. "We are now in the dark in this room and we have barricaded all the doors. It's really bad," he said. Some 200 people were reported being held hostage at the hotel.

It is also estimated that there are still between 45 to 50 hostages being held by the terrorists at the Taj Mahal Hotel, located near the Chabad House. Five terrorists were reported dead and 14 police officers were killed as well in an exchange of gunfire at the hotel, where thick black smoke billowed from blazing windows on the upper floors.

All movie theaters, entertainment centers and multiplexes were ordered to remain shut due to fears that terrorists were still at large and roaming the city. Schools were closed as well, and it was not clear whether the stock market would be open on Friday.

NDTV reported that Indian security officials believe the terrorists may have infiltrated into the city by sea. There is little regulation in the Bombay Harbor, noted the journalist in his report. Nariman House is located in the southern part of the city, along the water.

The sophisticated terrorist attacks, the worst ever in Mumbai and India, hit as Mumbai is involved in elections. Incoming U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and currently sitting President George W. Bush condemned the attacks, as did French President Nicolas Sarkozy, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and France as the current president of the European Union.

Foreign nationals from Australia, Britain, Italy and Japan are counted among the victims thus far.

Two Rabbis on Hashgacha Business Among Mumbai Missing

(IsraelNN.com) Two rabbis who travelled to Mumbai on business involving kashrut supervision had not been heard from for 24 hours as of 10:55 am, according to Yeshiva World News. Eastern time. One is Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, son of the Volover Rebbe from Boro Park, and a son-in-law of the Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Rebbe. The second is Rabbi Bentzion Chroman, who lives in Israel.

People are asked to pray for the safety of Aryeh Leibish ben Elta Nechama Maltshi (Teitelbaum) and Bentzion ben Elka (Chroman).

Prayers are also asked for Mumbai Chabad emissary Gavriel Noach ben Freida Bluma Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka bas Yehudis, who were reported unconscious at Mumbai’s Chabad House.

Did the terrorists KNOW it was a Jewish building? Because usually the signs are well hidden if there indeed are any, in most countries where there are risks. (I missed half a wedding once because the address of the shul was actually non-existent and kind of behind a different building.)

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