Indian Forces Wrap Up Operations in Mumbai
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The next hour of the NEWSROOM starts right now.Well, it looks like it's all over in Mumbai, but who is behind the attacks, the terror, the 183 dead. They're still trying to find out right now. Terror and the transition. President-elect Barack Obama says he's monitoring developments in India. Is that all he should be doing? And just look at this crowd, right there, of holiday shoppers ignoring the economy and pulling out the plastic. Was it enough to put the black into black Friday. Hello again everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield and you're in the CNN NEWSROOM. The siege in Mumbai appears over, but the death toll is daunting. At least 183 people dead and more than 300 hurt. A few hours ago, Indian commandos set off a series of explosions in the Taj Mahal Hotel. That was a move to diffuse any explosives that the terrorists may have set. The commandos are going room to room to make sure no gunmen or victims are still in the hotel. And at least five Americans were killed in the attacks, including a father and a daughter from Virginia. 58-year-old Alan Scherr and 13-year-old Naomi were on a trip with their spiritual meditation group. They were gunned down while dining at the Oberoi Hotel. Well, Mumbai rather - was the once very luxurious Taj Mahal Hotel is now the site of bombed out, blackened rooms and shattered glass. This is where the siege had apparently come to an end after Indian commandos killed three more terrorists. CNN's Andrew Stevens brings us the final hours of the standoff.</s>ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hours after Indian special forces shot dead the last remaining terrorists in their holdout at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, first pictures from inside the battered building. These scenes from the lobby and the surrounding room show the damage, but don't reveal the full extent of the two and a half day siege of one of this country's premier hotels. News of the battle was over emerged early Saturday morning, but security operations continued through the day.</s>STEVENS (on-camera): As the military moves to detonate hand grenades still inside the hotel and as commandos go room to room, authorities are warning that the death toll could rise.</s>STEVENS (voice-over): The Taj was still burning hours after the final gun battle and parts of the hotel where some of the most intense fighting happened were clearly visible from the outside, shattered and burnt out rooms both in the lower and upper parts of the hotel. Towels still hung from window frames where guests trapped had used them to signal they were still alive. Descriptions of the scenes inside both this hotel and the five-star Oberoi Trident Hotel nearby are now beginning to emerge.</s>PAUL ARCHER, OBEROI HOTEL SURVIVOR: The bomb went off just outside my window. And after that it was panic. It struck home a little bit more when you walked through the lobby and saw it all smashed up and there's blood everywhere that something really has happened.</s>JAMIE BENSON, AUSTRALIAN VISITOR: All of the Trident Hotel was just smashed in. There's blood splattered everywhere. The poor security guards, the doorman really (inaudible) all the front of the glass were shattered.</s>STEVENS: Several foreigners are now known to have died in the attacks, but it was the local population that saw the brunt of this violence. Funerals were held Saturday across the city, including a service for Mumbai's anti-terror chief Hermant Karkare who died on Wednesday night in a shootout in the Metro Cinema targeted by the government. But amid this tragedy, some heartfelt thanks to the military which finally brought this city's nightmare to an end. Andrew Stevens, CNN, Mumbai.</s>WHITFIELD: Meantime, more reaction coming from President Bush as well as President-elect Barack Obama. He has said that he'll try to improve relations between India and Pakistan when he takes office, but what can he do if anything right now. Our Ed Henry is in Chicago with more on this very delicate tightrope.</s>ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good afternoon, Fred. What's interesting is obviously the whole world is watching Barack Obama's words and actions right now as president-elect, but there's not a lot he can do. He's not actually commander in chief, so it is an awkward moment for him. He's trying to stay engaged in the situation on the ground in India without interfering with what President Bush is doing. And so he's been getting a lot of briefings from Bush administration officials including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. And meanwhile President Bush as you know is also on top of the situation. Today at Camp David in the morning, he convened a secure video conference with his top national security advisers to try to get a handle on the situation and try to figure out what they can do to sort of help the Indian government there on the ground. When he returned to the White House, the President addressed reporters.</s>PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We've reviewed the latest developments and we are working to ensure that American citizens in India are safe. Throughout the process, we have kept President-elect Obama informed. The killers who struck this week are brutal and violent, but terror will not have the final word.</s>HENRY: You heard President Bush there say they've been keeping the President-elect in the loop and in fact last evening we were told Barack Obama did place a phone call to Indian Prime Minister Singh in order to pass along his condolences for all those who have died and injured but also to make clear in that phone call according to an Obama that he realizes there's only one U.S. president at a time. He doesn't want to interfere with what the U.S. government is doing. While what this whole episode points obviously is the fact that while we've been talking so much about economic security and the international financial crisis, when Barack Obama is sworn in on January 20th of next year, he's going to have a whole host of national security challenges as well, Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: Ed Henry in Chicago. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. Meantime, the investigation is intensifying in Mumbai, but was there a warning prior to the attack? The owner of the Taj Mahal Hotel spoke to CNN Fareed Zakaria this morning.</s>FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST: You had been warned that there was some danger of some kind of attack, you had elaborate security measures and it appears that the terrorists waited until you relaxed them at the Taj Hotel, which again suggests some kind of either inside connection or very careful watching of the situation.</s>RATAN TATA, TAJ MAHAL HOTEL OWNER: Yes, you know it's ironic that we did have such a warning and we did have some measures to you know, where people couldn't park their cars in the portico where you have to go through a metal detector, but if I look at what we had, which all of us complained about, it could not have stopped what took place. They did not come through that entrance. They came from somewhere in the back. They planned everything, I believe the first thing they did was they shot the snooper dog and his handler. They went through the kitchen. They know what they were doing and they did not go through the front.</s>WHITFIELD: And of course, you can hear more of that interview tomorrow on CNN's Fareed Zakaria</s>GPS, 1: 00 p.m. Eastern. In the meantime, we're going to be joined also by senior international correspondent Nic Robertson, who is there. He too is looking into exactly what Ratan Tata is saying there about the threat posed before those attacks happened. So much of the finger pointing in the Mumbai attack is aimed at Pakistan. Is it warranted?