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The Chabad House in Mumbai.
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JERUSALEM (AFP-EJP)---India has turned down an Israeli offer to send counter-insurgency officers to Mumbai, where a Jewish centre was among the targets in attacks that claimed at least 130 lives, Israeli media said on Friday.
"India politely rejected yesterday an Israeli offer for security advice in fighting terror, including dispatching special counter-terror forces," the Yediot Aharonot daily said.
Haaretz also reported that Defence Minister Ehud Barak had offered the aid in a conversation with the national security adviser to the Indian government, Mayankote Kelath Narayanan, on Thursday.
“It appears the Indian government is not interested in high profile security assistance from Israel," the newspaper said.
The foreign ministry also insisted Israel did not send any commandos to Mumbai, where Indian commandos were seen on Friday abseiling from a helicopter into Chabad House, one of around a dozen sites attacked by gunmen on Wednesday night.
Media reports said six Israelis were believed to be among those held in Nariman House, including Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, who run the Chabad House, a prayer and study centre, which occupies part of the residential and commercial complex.
Yediot Aharonot reported that Shimon and Yehudit Rosenberg, the parents of Rivka Holtzberg, arrived in Mumbai early Friday morning with a delegation of the Zaka rescue and recovery organisation.
The two were reunited wit their two-year-old grandson, Moshe Tzvi, who was rescued from the Chabad House by his Indian nanny the day before.
Another 20 or so Israelis were unaccounted for in the Indian financial capital, foreign ministry officials said.
Zaka meanwhile said it had sent two paramedics and another six volunteers to Mumbai.