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Indian forces have stormed a Jewish centre in the latest of a series of operations against attackers who have carried out co-ordinated assaults in Mumbai, leaving up to 130 people dead and hundreds more wounded.

Troops were seen on television descending from a helicopter into the headquarters of Orthodox Jewish group Chabad Lubavitch early on Friday after attackers had taken the building more than 24 hours earlier.

The Jewish centre is located inside Nariman House, a business and residential complex.

Snipers stationed in buildings opposite the centre began the attack, with sustained fire on the building as at least nine commandos lowered themselves by rope onto the roof from a circling Indian air force helicopter.

It was not immediately clear if there were hostages in the building or their fate.

Two workers and a child escaped from the building on Thursday, the only people to emerge so far.

The child was identified as Moshe Holtzberg, two, the son of Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, the main representative at Chabad house.

Still holed up

Elsewhere in Mumbai, commandos scoured two luxury hotels where police said fighters were still holed up with an unknown number of hostages.

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But the sporadic gunfire and explosions at the Taj Mahal Palace and the Trident-Oberoi hotels dwindled overnight, indicating the sieges there might be winding down.

The Indian military said it believes two or three attackers and about 15 civilians were still inside the Taj hotel.

Ratan Tata, who runs the company that owns the elegant Taj Mahal, said they had detailed knowledge of the layout of the hotels.

The strikes by small bands of armed men starting on Wednesday night shocked Mumbai, the nerve-centre of India's growing economic might and home to the Bollywood film industry.

At least three senior Indian police officers - including the chief of Mumbai's anti-terror squad - were among those killed.

Little activity

Al Jazeera's Riz Khan, reporting from outside the Trident-Oberoi, where gunfire had been heard throughout Thursday, said things were quiet just before dawn on Friday.

Guests, including foreigners, were being evacuated from the Trident-Oberoi Hotel on Friday morning.

Sohail Rahman, reporting for Al Jazeera from outside the hotel, said there has been "very little activity from the security personnel as far as we know".

"About two hours ago there was a sound of a very large thud and people wondered whether there was some sort of military operation ongoing; whether they [security forces] were going to take the hotel," he said.

"It's been very unclear what stage the security personnel have been able to sweep the hotel. They started over 12 hours ago on Thursday combing room by room, floor by floor, trying to secure the building before they can catch the attackers still holding those hostages."

Our correspondent said Indian government officials have been "very tight-lipped about the progress of the special forces at the locations where these attacks have happened".

"They are only giving out information as and when they can confirm it. They are making sure that they have a very tight lid on the information that is filtered out to the media," he said.

"So it is very difficut to asses exactly at what stage any of these forces or government officials are at in terms of planning in retaking buildings."

A US investigative team is heading to Mumbai, a state department official said on Thursday evening.

Media speculation

Meanwhile, the Indian media, citing unidentified police investigators, reported on Friday that three alleged attackers had confessed to being members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group which aims to end Indian rule in Kashmir.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, which means army of God, had earlier denied any role in the attacks.

India pressed anti-terror commandos into action after Wednesday's assault [AFP]

Earlier, a little known group calling itself the Deccan Mujahedeen claimed responsibility for the attack in emails to news organisations.

Dipankar Banerjee, a retired Indian general, told Al Jazeera that said he does not rule out the possibility that the Indian Mujahedeen, blamed for previous attacks, were responsible for the Mumbai assaults.

In a speech on Thursday, Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, blamed "external forces", a phrase sometimes used to refer to Pakistan-based fighters.

But Mahan Abedin, an insurgency analyst, told Al Jazeera: "We have seen an increase in recent years in indigenous Indian Muslim organisations beginning to take a violent stance towards the Indian state and sections of the Indian society, particularly the commercial elite of places like Mumbai, in order to highlight, they would say, the sheer inequality of life in India.

"There is a middle class of around 100 million who live very well but 800 million-plus people live in miserable conditions."