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Guests evacuated from Mumbai hotel as end nears
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-28 17:14

Police said at least seven attackers were killed and nine suspects were taken into custody. They said 12 policemen were killed, including the chief of Mumbai's anti-terrorist squad.

Indian National security Guard (NSG) commandos rappel down from a helicopter onto the roof of Nariman House, which houses a Jewish centre, in Mumbai November 28, 2008. Gunfire erupted on Friday when commandos began an operation to free Israelis held by suspected Islamist gunmen in Mumbai, while guests were also being evacuated from a luxury hotel in India's financial heart, witnesses said. [Agencies]

At least eight foreigners, including one Australian, a Briton, an Italian and a Japanese national, were killed. Scores of others were trapped in the fighting or were being held hostage. Police said 279 people were wounded.

Pakistan Group

The Hindu newspaper said at least three of the attackers taken into custody were members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, based in Pakistan.

The group made its name fighting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir, and has been closely linked in the past to the Pakistani military's Inter Services Intelligence agency, the ISI.

Lashkar-e-Taiba has denied any role in the attacks.

"It is evident that the group which carried out these attacks, based outside the country, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc in the commercial capital of the country," Prime Minister Singh said on Thursday.

"We will take up strongly with our neighbours that the use of their territory for launching attacks on us will not be tolerated, and that there would be a cost if suitable measures are not taken by them," he said in a televised address.

Pakistan, condemning the assault, promised full cooperation.

The militants appeared to specifically target Britons, Americans and Israelis, witnesses said. About 10 Israelis were being held in several different sites, authorities said.

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.

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