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Taj Mahal Hotel in flames (Gautam Singh/AP)
After following terror incidents within India for the past few years, it seemed like the horrible series of terror attacks that occured in Mumbai over the past 24 hours contained something new and alarming. Previous acts of Muslim terror have targeted purely Indian targets like the Parliament and Mumbai’s financial district.
Yesterday’s terror specifically targeted tourist destinations and a Jewish institution. The terrorists specifically sought out British and U.S. passport holders. They also attacked Nariman House, the Chabad headquarters in the city and killed three people there while taking several hostages. This is an escalation of tactics.
Indian commando storms Nariman House (Phil Smith/Reuters)
My first thought was that targeting specifically Jewish and western targets might indicate Al Qaeda’s involvement. I also wondered whether the attack might have been sponsored by radical Pakistani Muslims. However, the N.Y. Times speculates that this is not an Al Qaeda attack, but possibly a revenge attack by Indian Muslims who harbor simmering resentments on a number of fronts. But even if it is an act of domestic terror, I find it disturbing that it was directed at foreigners and especially Jews.
This means, as one of the experts interviewed for this article notes, that India’s Muslims are absorbing some of the worst of the Islamist rhetoric and adopting it for their own. And yet again, we see that Muslims with a particular set of domestic grievances are using the rhetoric and strategies of Al Qaeda in their fight. The provocations they are handed in terms of U.S. occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and the intractable Israeli-Arab conflict only make things worse.
UPDATE: I just read a report from a Mumbai journalist reminding readers that 95 of the 100 known dead are Indian and not foreign. So I may have to amend what I said above.
UPDATE I: The Chabad rabbi, his wife and child were reportedly rescued unhurt. I read another story last night that said that neighbors of the Chabad facility stoned the terrorists outside the building and caused them to shower the crowd with automatic weapon fire, killing three. I don’t know whether the crowd’s motivation was specifically to protect the Chabadniks or merely to harry the terrorists. At any rate, if this story is true these neighbors sound like heroes.
UPDATE II: This JTA report says that the Chabad rabbi and wife are still hostages and that they may be either unconscious or dead. There are reports of six hostages who may be Israeli still held by up to four terrorists. The Indian army is currently mounting a rescue operation against Nariman House, where Chabad is housed.
UPDATE III: From this eyewitness report in the N.Y. Times of the military assault on Nariman House it appears that shooting lasted for about 90 minutes. There has been no shooting for the past 30 minutes. If there are only four terrorists inside, it would seem strange that it would take 90 minutes to subdue them. One has to fear for the fate of the hostages inside.
Another interesting facet of the N.Y. Times coverage is that it is much more blog-like than anything I’ve ever seen them do. They called early for Indian bloggers to provide them with reports from the field. They publish minute by minute updates of the action. Little by little, the Times is entering the digital age–and it’s about time.
I noticed the first nascent emergence of this phenomenon during the Lebanon war. Then it wasn’t so much the newspapers that were live blogging the war. It was the Lebanese, and to an extent the Israeli bloggers who were doing so. This was a model for providing more intensive, minute-by-minute coverage that was not mediated by journalists, camera crews and news feeds. It is a model for the future.
UPDATE IV: Thanks to reader John Dickerson for this Haaretz report which I relate with the caveat that Israeli reports on breaking news stories are known to be notoriously unreliable:
According to information transmitted to the Israeli authorities, there were at least four bodies inside Nariman House, but it was not known whether they were of Israelis. Indian media reported that about 10 of the hostages being held at the Chabad house were freed by security services, but their identities were not known.
This might indicate that Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife are among the dead. We hope and pray for the safety of all the hostages.
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Susan Sarandon, Denise Rich & Isabella Rosselini at Leviev opening (Scott Wintrow/Getty Images)
Roman Abramovich & Lev Leviev, Tel Aviv (Nir Keidar/Getty Images)
Holiday trees in “hiding” at Seatac (from ABC News video)
