FBI Sends Agents to Mumbai, Three US Citizens Killed

Via WSJ.com -

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is sending agents to Mumbai to investigate attacks that now include American victims, a counterterrorism official said.

The U.S. government's "working assumption" that the Pakistani militant groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed are suspects in the attacks "has held up" as Indian authorities have begun their investigation, the official said. The two Kashmiri militant groups have ties to al Qaeda.

At least three Americans were among the more than 150 people killed in the attacks. Alan Scherr, 58 years old, and his daughter Naomi, 13, were visiting Mumbai from Virginia, where they are part of a community that promotes a form of meditation. Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg of the group Chabad, who was killed at the group's Mumbai headquarters, holds dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, according to the Associated Press.

Kathy Plunket Versluys, owner of a bed and breakfast near the community's property, has known the Scherr family since 1996.

"I am still reeling," she said. "We're in the beautiful area of the Blue Ridge mountains. It's peaceful and it's what our inn and their foundation are about. It's hard to fathom what has happened. We've never been struck by the horrors of the international world until now."