It took only 10 heavily armed young men to carry out one of the deadliest attacks in Indian history and terrorize a city of 18 million.
Indian commandos have killed the last three gunmen inside Mumbai's historic Taj Mahal hotel Saturday, ending a terrorist attack that gripped the city for three days and left at least 195 people dead -- including two Canadians.
Adoring crowds took the streets Saturday, surrounding six buses carrying tired, unshaven black-clad commandos, shaking their hands and giving them flowers.
One commando said he was awake for nearly 60 straight hours since the attack began Wednesday night.
In total, nine terrorists were killed and one was arrested. Maharshta state official R. R. Patil said the captured gunman was a Pakistani national named Mohammad Ajmal Qasam.
Patil said the gunmen used "GPS, mobile and satellite phones to communicate," and "were constantly in touch with another country."
U.S. President George Bush said those behind the attacks "will not have the final word" and offered his full support in the investigation. FBI agents were headed to India on Saturday, with another group ready to deploy if needed.
CTV reporter Steve Chao reported that Indian commandos were still sweeping through hotel rooms late Saturday to ensure that no other militants or weapons were left unaccounted for.
Chao said police are now focused on finding out who is responsible for the series of devastating attacks that began Wednesday. It was originally attributed to the Deccan Mujahideen, a previously unheard of Islamic militant group, but officials now suspect a Pakistani militant group may have been involved.
"Nothing is substantiated and Pakistan's government says that they do not believe that their country has been used as a base for militancy and the problem may be home grown in India," Chao told 麻豆影视net Saturday in a telephone interview from Mumbai.
"It's leading to some increased tension to the two nuclear powers."
There were other reports that suggested some of the terrorists may have carried British passports, but nothing has been confirmed, Chao said.
Attacks may signal new trend in terrorist attacks
Terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman told 麻豆影视net on Saturday that the Mumbai attacks appeared to be an example of a new type of terrorist tactic.
Rather than using explosives, the militants used a series of highly-planned, on-the-ground raids to achieve their objectives.
"What sets the Mumbai attacks apart is that these were en masse...simultaneous, almost commando-like assaults," Hoffman said in a phone interview from Washington.
"Clearly this was an operation that involved considerable training and the use of training facilities," he said.
Shantaram Jadhav, an official at Mumbai's disaster control office, said the death toll will likely rise further as not all bodies have been removed from the sites of the attacks.
Among the victims was Montreal physician Michael Moss. The name of the other Canadian victim has not been released.
Jadhav thought as many as 295 had been wounded in the attacks.
Early Friday, Indian commandos found the bodies of six hostages, including a New York rabbi and his wife, after storming an ultra-orthodox Jewish centre in Mumbai.
Two gunmen were also reported dead inside the centre but how they died is unknown.
"The Jewish centre has been cleared but now they're looking for any explosives that have been left behind," Y.P. Rajesh, a reporter with the Indian Express, told 麻豆影视net on Friday.
Late Friday, a spokesman for the Chabad Lubavitch movement, based in Brooklyn, N.Y., said that Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, were among those killed.
The couple's toddler son, Moshe Holtzberg, was smuggled out by an employee and is in the care of his grandparents.
Holtzberg was one of six Americans killed. It was not immediately clear if his wife had American citizenship.
Earlier Friday, about 20 Westerners, some of whom had Canadian flags on their luggage, emerged from the Oberoi hotel, another target in Wednesday's attacks.
Officials said commandos had killed the two last gunmen inside the Oberoi.
"The hotel is under our control," J.K. Dutt, director general of India's elite National
Security Guard commando unit, told reporters.
He said 24 bodies had been found inside the hotel.
With files from The Associated Press
