6 hostages dead in Chabad House

The Chabad-Lubavitch movement has confirmed that a New York rabbi and his wife are among the dead in the India terrorist attack.A spokesman, Rabbi Zalman Schmotkin, said Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, have been killed in Mumbai. They ran the movement's local headquarters, which was one of 10 sites attacked.The couple's toddler son, Moshe Holtzberg, was taken out of the center by an employee, and is now with his grandparents. Speaking to Army Radio on Friday, a relative, Yitzhak Dovid Grossman, said there was "an eruption of emotion" when the grandparents met their grandson. But he said they soon resumed "worrying about what is happening with Rivki and her husband."Schmotkin identified two other victims as Bentzion Chroman, an Israeli with dual US citizenship, and Leibish Teitlebaum, an American from Brooklyn. Hesaid a fifth victim was an Israeli woman but did not give her name. On Friday night, the Foreign Ministry confirmed that a sixth victim was found in the building; Indian commandos were still combing the floors of Nariman House for other casualties.In the most dramatic of the counter-strikes, masked Indian commandos rappelled from a helicopter to the rooftop of the Chabad House as snipers laid down cover fire.For nearly 12 hours, explosions and gunfire erupted from the five-story building as the commandos fought their way downward, while thousands of people gathered behind barricades in the streets to watch.The assault blew huge holes in the center, and, at one point, Indian forces fired a rocket at the building. Soon after, elated commandos ran outside with their rifles raised over their heads in a sign of triumph.A ZAKA delegation entered the building after the raid and reported through an Indian aide that five hostages were dead, a ZAKA spokesman in Israel said.The mission of the ultra-Orthodox ZAKA volunteers is to rescue the living - and in the case of the dead, carry out the task of gathering up all pieces of flesh and blood to facilitate a proper Jewish burial.Sky News quoted Indian National Security Guards chief J.K. Dutt as saying two gunmen were also killed in the operation against Islamic terrorists holed up inside the building.Dutt spoke after commandos blew a hole in the wall of the besieged building as they tried to box in the terrorists, who were holding an unspecified number of hostages. The massive explosion shook the Chabad center, blowing out windows in neighboring buildings, and gunfire and smaller explosions followed the blast.Commandos had rappelled from helicopters to storm the center earlier Friday, two days after a chain of Islamic terrorist attacks across India's financial center left at least 143 people dead and the city in panic.Israel's ambassador to India, Mark Sofer, said he believed there had been up to nine hostages inside. Sofer denied reports that Israeli commandos had taken part in the operation.Haim Hoshen, the Foreign Ministry's Head of Asia and South Asia Department, told The Jerusalem Post that two to four Israelis were being held inside the building.The Foreign Ministry said that a total of 17 Israelis were still unaccounted for in Mumbai.Also Friday morning, two Israeli businessmen were amongst the dozens of hostages rescued late Friday morning from Mumbai's Oberoi hotel.Earlier, an El Al plane carrying some 300 Israelis arrived at Ben Gurion Airport from Mumbai.One of the passengers described the atmosphere in the city to Army Radio."There was a feeling of fear, panic and naivety on the part of the Indians. They realized that they did not know how to take control of the situation. I found myself in a closed, dark room waiting, listening to CNN…waiting to know what to do next," he said.
By JPOST.COM STAFF, YAAKOV LAPPIN AND AP
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