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.
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.
[comment deleted for violation of comment rules & being just plain mean as shite.]
http://falsedichotomies.com/2008/11/27/mumbai/
I haven’t seen anyone argue yet that Habad were specifically targeted (although obviously it would be one major coincidence). It’s still unclear to me if the Mumbai Habad house is in a shared building. Also – I would be very surprised if there was anything more than minimal Indian Muslim involvement in this. Much more likely is Pakistani/Bangladeshi groups, and Outlook India is reporting that Arabic was heard, and Somalis were seen, although obviously those are very preliminary assessments.
I just read the NY Times piece, which seems much clearer than Haaretz. If it was specifically targeted, it’s a very disturbing development.
Now it seems pretty clear that it was deliberately targeted; I feel pretty silly for not putting 2 +2 together straight away. Anyway, a very disturbing development. On the other hand, this makes it less likely that it was a domestic Indian group.
The scale and the nature of the attack are truly unreal. What a nasty and cowardly attack on innocent people. What a waste of life.
@Alex Stein: No, the NY Times is reporting from hostages who were eyewitnesses that Hindi & Urdu was spoken by the terrorists. I haven’t heard anything about Somalis. And those the Times interviewed besides eyewitnesses were U.S. experts on Indian terror groups. I trust their conclusions–at least so far.
FROM HAARETZ:
Last update – 08:10 28/11/2008
Commandos storm Mumbai Chabad house, 4 bodies found / Last update – 08:10 28/11/2008
By Anshel Pfeffer, Barak Ravid, Amos Harel and Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondents, and News Agencies
Indian commandos were dropped by helicopter on the roof of the besieged Chabad headquarters in Mumbai as Indian snipers at the site opened fire early Friday morning.
Heavily armed Indian commandos, their faces covered by balaclavas, rappelled from helicopters onto the roof of the Chabad center in what television reports said was an assault by the paramilitary National Security Guard to flush out the militants.
Sharpshooters in buildings opposite the headquarters of Chabad began shooting early Friday as a helicopter circled overhead……
…….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…….
ARTICLE/VIDEO –
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1041834.html
FROM REUTERS:
Q+A- Who could be behind the Mumbai attacks and why?
Thu Nov 27, 2008 8:32pm
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Militants armed with automatic weapons and grenades attacked luxury hotels, hospitals and a famous tourist cafe in India’s commercial capital Mumbai late on Wednesday, killing at least 101 people.
* WHO IS BEHIND THE ATTACKS?
The attacks were claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen in an e-mail to news organisations. Deccan is an area of southern India.
But it is not clear if the claim is genuine, and analysts say the bombings are almost certainly the work of a different group……
ENTIRE ARTICLE –
http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-36726120081127?pageNumber=4&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true
FM: No Israelis in Mumbai Hospitals
Cheshvan 29, 5769, 27 November 08 09:54(IsraelNN.com) Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yossi Levi said, mid-morning Thursday, that according to the data received by Israel’s control center for the Mombai terrorist attacks there are no Israelis among the wounded or dead in Mombai hospitals.
Levi added that reports coming had not yielded new specific information about the condition of Chabad Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, who are being held by terrorists in the Mumbai Chabad house.
http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com© Copyright IsraelNationalNews.com
Subscribe to the free Daily Israel Report – sub.israelnn.com
SOURCE _
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/SendMail.aspx?print=print&type=0.1&item=156517
I live in Mumbai and I am witnessing these horrific events as they unfold on TV.
– The GOC of Army operations has informed NDTV that they intercepted coversations of the militants talking in Punjabi. Punjabi is spoken in both India and Pakistan. The GOC also speculated that terrorists are aware that conversations are being intercepted and are attempting to give false information in hopes of misleading the army.http://ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080074373
– At the moment information about hostages are vague and undislosed because it could harm the safety of those trapped in the 3 main buildings. But the death toll through hospital estimates has risen to 125 with around 300 injured.
– This kind of attack is indeed a new kind of terrorism. It’s not enough that they blow up innocent people anymore they have to hold the whole city under seige in oreder to instill in us a sense of constant fear and horror.
– I agree with Mr. Silversteing. The this blog should not be titled attack on foreigners out of the 125 dead a 119 are Indians. As one commentator on NYT has said that we need to remember that the people of India are also victims and that, “it shouldn’t be that foreign blood is more valuable than Indian blood”
– It is important however to asses the motivations of these terrorists. They are clearly making a statement about India’s relations with the US and with Israel. they want to sever these ties we have. And as Richard has rightly stated they constantly use the ISrael-Palestine conflict to fuel their war against the innocent.
I have more news too But I think I will let somone else have a chance to speak. This is indeed a horrific day for Mumbai. Such callous and reckless regard for life – No matter how yound, uneducated or impoverished you are, how can anyone in their twisted mind believe that this is right? My heart goes out to all those who have not survived this trajic event and to all those who have suffered.
I disagree with the assessment that the object of the attack was Indians.
The target of the attack are places where westerners and foreigners feel comfortable, invited.
The message is two-fold. One is that foreigners are to be scared away, commerce and tourism.
The second is of “internal struggle”, alternating between the limited conflict over Kashmir to the larger conflict over control over the Indian subcontinent.
Some of a sixy years war (Kashmir), some of a thousand years war (Islamic dominance over the subcontinent), each carried out by self-appointing vanguard.
Of “conscience”, in the parallel of self-appointed responsibility.
That 95% of the victims were Indian, and likely a moderate but not insignificant minority Muslim, is a side story to message to the world.
BAD NEWS:
More hostages are dead at Mumbai Jewish centerReuters
JERUSALEM, Nov 28 (Reuters) – An Israeli rescue service run by Orthodox Jews said on Friday that staff it had sent to Mumbai to help at a siege of a Jewish religious centre believed that hostages in the Chabad Centre had died.
“Apparently the hostages did not remain alive,” the Zaka service said in a brief statement quoting its staff in Mumbai. It did identify the hostages nor say how many may have died. An Israeli rabbi and his wife had been believed to be held hostage…..
SOURCE –
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/All_Jewish_hostages_in_India_are_1128.html
Well if one say that they attacked the jews then what abt the three oficers which have been killed in the counter strike thay also have been targetted and killed one can not see that. Its all bloddy politics.
@Richard Witty: I’m not sure what you mean. If you mean that the TARGETS of the attack were not meant to be Indian, then why attack the railroad station frequented by Indians more than tourists. And the fact that only 13 out of over 150 dead were foreign points to the fact that as far as killing their targets were overwhelmingly Indian.
I doubt Indians would agree that their dead are a “side story.” To you & other westerners perhaps.
These attacks have to be understood in the light of Israeli politics and in particular in an understanding of the Neocon roots of the Israeli government, which operates definitely NOT at the behest of mainstream Israelis.
The purpose is to terrorize the Chabad community in particular, but not for the reason you think:
Chabad has been the only major force attempting to re-establish Orthodox (or “Observant”) Judaism.
The largest number of attacks and imprisonment of Jews takes place in Israel. The purpose of this is to create a viable war against Observant Jews. This is, ironically, supported by the bogus “Muslim” attacks, not the least of which frauds was 9/11, which was clearly an inside job.
Our government (so-called) has always understood the necessity of contributing and/or inflaming both sides of any and all conflicts. This has the intended consequences of 1) weakening both sides, 2) distracting attention from what is happening at the Vatican, and 3) avoiding the feared power if both sides of this conflict actually attempted to work together to destroy the real culprits.
Chabad has been “fair game” for extermination in Israel for over two generations that I know of. The statistics don’t lie–unfortunately.
This is also disturbing: http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/nov/30mumterror-doctors-shocked-at-hostagess-torture.htm