Five U.S. citizens dead in Mumbai, more "at risk"

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - At least five U.S. citizens, including a Brooklyn rabbi and a Virginia teenager, were killed in militant attacks in Mumbai and the State Department said it was working with India to account for missing Americans.

State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid confirmed five U.S. citizens had been killed, but he did not identify them.

"The consulate in Mumbai will continue to work with the Indian police until all missing American citizens have been accounted for," he added.

"There are still Americans at risk on the ground and we want to be very, very careful with any facts," Duguid said.

The Virginia-based Synchronicity Foundation said on its website that Alan Scherr and his 13-year-old daughter, Naomi, Americans who were in India as part of a meditation program, died in the attacks that have killed at least 144 people and wounded 283 more.

The New York office of the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish group said a Brooklyn rabbi and his wife were killed in the siege on a Jewish center in Mumbai as part of the coordinated attacks. The rabbi was a dual U.S.-Israeli national and his wife Israeli, the group said.

"Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, the beloved directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of Mumbai, were killed during one of the worst terrorist attacks to strike India in recent memory," the Chabad's New York headquarters said in a statement.

The couple's son, Moshe, who turns 2 on Saturday, escaped with his nanny, who brought him to a local hospital. The boy was now in the custody of the mother's parents, who had traveled to India from Israel, the group said.

Rabbi Chaim Cunin, an official at the Chabad center in Los Angeles, said two other rabbis, Leibish Teitelbaum and Bentzion Chroman, were also killed in the attack. He said they were Israeli citizens, but could not rule out they also held U.S. passports.

President George W. Bush said he was deeply saddened and the United States was working with India's government to ensure the safety of those still under threat.

"We will continue to cooperate against these extremists who offer nothing but violence and hopelessness," Bush said in a statement.

President-elect Barack Obama also expressed condolences about what he called "outrageous terrorist attacks in Mumbai," and said he fully supported the Bush administration's efforts to protect U.S. citizens in India.

"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," he said in a statement.

'HORRIBLE ATTACKS'

Senior Bush administration officials met on Friday afternoon for more discussions about the attacks, said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. She said they were focused on "ensuring everything possible is being done to help American citizens affected by these horrible attacks."