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Indian commandos take part in a military operation to rescue a group of hostages held in the Nariman House at Colaba Market in Mumbai on November 28, 2008.he bodies of five Israeli hostages seized by Islamic militants were recovered from the Chabad House, located in the building.
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NEW DELHI (AFP-EJP)---The bodies of five Israeli hostages seized by Islamic terrorists were recovered Friday from the Chabad House in Mumbai after it was stormed by Indian commandos, an Israeli diplomat said.
"Five bodies of hostages have been found. They are Israeli nationals," Eli Belotsercovsky, deputy chief of mission at the Israeli embassy in New Delhi, said.
"It's very sad this has happened," he added.
The Press Trust of India quoted Indian national security guard chief J.K. Dutt as saying the terrorists had killed the hostages during Friday's commando assault on the building.
"We had taken over the second floor of the house when a grenade was launched from above. Three hostages were killed by terrorists," Dutt said.
As the armed unit moved upstairs, the militants killed another two hostages on the fourth floor, he added.
Loud explosions and sporadic automatic weapons fire erupted throughout the day after the black-clad troops abseiled from helicopters onto the centre's roof at dawn.
The bursts of gunfire and blasts came in waves but increased in intensity in late afternoon.
As the operation to end the siege peaked, smoke billowed out of the windows of the complex, which houses the Chabad House run by Rabbi Avriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka.
Both were among the hostages held.
A rocket-propelled grenade fired by the military had earlier smashed a gaping hole into the building's fourth floor wall.
The Israeli embassy had said that about 10-20 Israeli nationals were among those held hostage or trapped in the city after militants attacked two hotels and a number of other locations late Wednesday.
Israeli media reported that India had turned down an offer for help and security advice.
Premature storming ?
According to Israeli security experts quoted by the media, Indian security forces were premature in storming the besieged premises taken over by the terrorists.
Criticising the handling of the hostage crisis, the experts said "Indians should have sanitized the area and first collected intelligence about the terrorists before launching flushing out operations.”
"In hostage situations, the first thing the forces are supposed to do is assemble at the scene and begin collecting intelligence,"a former official in Israel's famed anti-terror agency Shin Bet told The Jerusalem Post.
"In this case, it appears that the forces showed up at the scene and immediately began exchanging fire with the terrorists instead of first taking control of the area," he said.
At least 17 foreigners died in the attacks in various sites in Mumbai, according to announcements by officials in India and in the victims' home countries.
India's newspapers laid much of the blame at the door of the intelligence agencies, which they said had failed spectacularly in allowing a handful of gunmen to wreak such havoc and devastation.
The Indian Express singled out Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying he bore "special responsibility" because he had been "partly distracted" by modernising the country's foreign policy and its economy.
"He has not been able to make the slightest difference to our internal security," the paper said.
