WASHINGTON: Several attackers may have survived the three-day siege of Mumbai that killed 171 people last week, analysts said on Thursday. “I think there are more. My sources say (there were) at least 23 gunmen,” said Farhana Ali, a former CIA and Rand Corp counterterrorism analyst and expert on militant networks. Ali, who visited India and Pakistan last month before the attacks, said her information came from Pakistan. “If that’s true, that makes one wonder why we haven’t seen more attacks? Are they lying low?” she said, “I think they (Indian authorities) are bracing themselves for more,” she said at a briefing for the US government counterterrorism and military officials, and others. Indian authorities have said 10 gunmen took part in the Mumbai attacks last week. But earlier reports cited that there were around 25 gunmen. Authorities captured one, who was interrogated, and killed nine. Indian and US officials blame the attacks on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). A US counterterrorism official said, “Is there a possibility that some LeT terrorists are still out there? Yes, but we have to wait and see because all the information is not in yet.” David Kilcullen, who has served as a senior counterterrorism adviser to US General David Petraeus and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said he agreed that were probably more attackers, who equipped themselves with fake identification and wore Western clothes with clean-shaven faces, indicating they probably did not view the attack as a suicide operation. “The fact that they lost nine out of 10 identified attackers killed doesn’t necessarily indicate that it was intended to have all those people dying,” he said. “The Indians said there were 10 attackers, based on the fact that they captured one and killed nine - you have to assume there are more out there,” he said. He noted, however, that there was no short-term follow-up attack on a target such as a hospital treating victims. The fighters had high-level professional training, Kilcullen said. http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1211757
