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MUMBAI ATTACKS : Bush, Obama express sorrow for victims of attacks

US President George W. Bush said he had been saddened by the wave of attacks in Mumbai, in which at least five Americans lost their lives, and promised to fight extremists wherever they are.

“Laura and I are deeply saddened that at least two Americans were killed and others injured in Wednesday’s horrific attack in Mumbai,” Bush said in a statement made public on Friday.

“We also mourn the great loss of life suffered by so many people from several other countries, and we have the wounded in our thoughts and prayers,” he said.

The statement came as the US Department of State announced that five US citizens had been killed in the carnage and that more Americans remained missing.

The department did not identify the victims killed in the wave of attacks by Pakistan-based Islamic militants.

But earlier, the Synchronicity Foundation, a meditation community outside Charlottesville, Virginia, said two of their members, a father and daughter, had been killed at the Oberoi Hotel.

And a Jewish outreach group said a New York-based rabbi and his wife had been killed in an assault on the group’s center in Mumbai.

Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who was born in Israel and moved to New York as a child, and his Israeli wife, Rivka, were the directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of Mumbai.

Bush said his administration had been working with India and the international community “as Indian authorities work to ensure the safety of those still under threat.”

“We will continue to cooperate against these extremists who offer nothing but violence and hopelessness,” he said.

Earlier a White House spokeswoman said he was keeping abreast of the ongoing situation with regular updates from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has also briefed president-elect Barack Obama.

In a separate statement, Obama expressed sorrow for the victims of the attacks on Mumbai and said the militants who staged the assault would not defeat India’s “great democracy” or the global coalition arrayed against them.

“The United States must stand with India and all nations and people who are committed to destroying terrorist networks, and defeating their hate-filled ideology,” the president-elect said.

Rice spoke with Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee for a second time on Friday to discuss the situation in Mumbai, her spokesman Gordon Duguid said.

And US Undersecretary of State William Burns spoke with Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon. Bush and Rice were staying at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Senior administration officials also met on Friday to discuss the situation in Mumbai and to ensure everything possible was being done to help US citizens affected by the attacks, the White House said in a statement.

The US administration was also working with the Indian government “at all levels” and has offered assistance and support, it said.
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