Indian commandos assemble on the terrace of Nariman House as they prepare an assault in Mumbai on Nov. 28. Indian newspapers have slammed the government and intelligence agencies for failing to prevent the Mumbai attacks. INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images

Meet the targets of the Mumbai terrorist attacks: CEOs meeting their boards, millionaires looking to buy yachts, financiers prepping for a private equity conference, a prominent family and friends gathered for a wedding.

Until Wednesday night, Nov. 26, when armed gunmen sneaked in from the Arabian Sea and plunged this city into a three-day nightmare, these were the people who made up the new Mumbai; staunchly cosmopolitan, ferociously competitive on the global stage, and luminous markers of India's soaring aspirations.

Now, after three nights of gun battles and explosions that left at least 150 dead—more than a dozen of them foreigners—Mumbai may have taken a hit to its most precious asset: its reputation. "You can't keep having these events and not affect the image of the city," says Aninda Mitra, an analyst at Moody's (MCO). "But if you can't [improve things fast] the government will find itself not just worrying about the image, but the reality."

Amid an Economy Losing Steam

In recent years, Mumbai has been transformed from a city known for textiles and kitschy cinema to a financial powerhouse that serves as a gateway to India. It's the brightest beacon of the country's economic miracle, though there's still an overabundance of poverty—and no shortage of the secular strife that often threatens to rip India apart. In July 2006, 187 people were killed as coordinated bombs ripped through commuter trains in the crowded city. Three years before that, 60 people were killed by car bombs. And a decade before that, in 1992 and 1993, Hindu-Muslim riots claimed another 1,000.

Yet through it all, Mumbai has thrived, positioning itself proudly as an alternative to Hong Kong or Tokyo as the capital of Asian finance. Its stock exchange is among the world's busiest, its banking community the envy of South Asia, and its restaurants and nightlife closing in on those of any global cultural capital. "This sort of thing has happened before, and it can't stop Mumbai," says Omkar Goswami, the founder of the Corporate & Economic Research Group, and once the chief economist for India's biggest industry lobby. "Nothing has stopped our economy, nothing has changed Mumbai."

Indeed, on Friday, the Bombay Stock Exchange opened just a short distance from where terrorists still held hostages. The markets flared up in patriotic defiance, with the benchmark Sensex index closing up 66 points on a day when most expected it to drop. But India's economy has already lost steam, with GDP growth slowing to 7.6% and foreign institutional investors withdrawing more than $13 billion from its equity markets, leaving the Sensex at less than half where it stood a year ago. "The important question to ask is, what will the Indian state do now?" says Goswami. "The police, the intelligence gathering, how do you beef them up? These are the decisions which will decide what the impact of these terrorist attacks are."

Without doubt, Mumbai's economy, which contributes as much as 5% of India's $1 trillion GDP and nearly a third of its direct taxes, will take a while to limp back to normal. For three days now, trains have run empty, schools and offices have remained closed, and Mumbai residents, heeding a call from the government, have stayed indoors. On Friday afternoon, when a few people started trickling out of their homes, a false alarm about more armed gunmen at train stations sent them scrambling back. "There will be fewer board meetings, fewer deals being made, fewer people doing business," says Mitra, of Moody's. "But this won't last long." After all, says A.M. Naik, chairman of Indian engineering giant Larsen & Toubro, "Despite these issues, the world is not going to miss participating in an economy growing between 7 to 8%."

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 21 -- Pakistani officials said Sunday that 21 foreigners, including two Americans stationed at the U.S. Embassy, were among the victims of a massive suicide truck bombing Saturday night that destroyed a luxury Marriott hotel in the capital.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani said the bomber's intended target was Gillani's official residence a block from the hotel, where newly elected President Asif Ali Zardari and other officials were gathered to break their daily Ramadan fast when the bomb exploded about 8 p.m.

"The purpose was to destabilize democracy," Gillani said.

As rescue teams combed the still-smoldering five-story building, officials put the death toll at 53, with an unknown number of people still unaccounted for. At least 266 people were injured. Most of the victims were hotel workers.

A spokesman for the Pentagon in Washington said Sunday that the two Americans killed in the blast were members of the U.S. defense forces assigned to the U.S. Embassy here. Their names were not immediately released.

Pakistani officials said a contingent of 30 U.S. Marines was believed to be staying in the 290-room hotel.

A senior government security adviser, Rehman Malik, pointed the finger at Islamist militant groups based in South Waziristan, a volatile tribal area near the Afghan border. These groups have vowed to retaliate against the government for stepped-up military raids and for a series of U.S. military incursions in pursuit of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

"All roads lead to South Waziristan and Tehrik-e-Taliban," Malik said, referring to a militant group headed by Baitullah Mehsud, who has repeatedly vowed to attack the government after a truce with his forces collapsed last year.

Malik showed journalists a dramatic video of the attack, in which a large dump truck rammed into a metal barrier near the hotel and caught fire. The video showed guards scattering, trying to put out the blaze, and scattering again when the driver kept going, detonating the huge blast.

Marriott said in a statement Saturday that several hotel guards who had gone out to examine the truck were among the dead.

The truck had been packed with 1,300 pounds of military explosives, mortars and other weapons, Malik said. The bombing was timed to coincide with the fast-breaking meal, when guards were eating and likely to be distracted.

Malik said the attack was intended to destroy the hotel, a center of social and political life in the Pakistani capital and a frequent choice of foreign visitors. The ambassador from the Czech Republic was among the dead, officials said.

Yemen's official Saba news agency said 16 people died in the incident, including six Yemeni soldiers, four civilians and six attackers. One of the civilians was an Indian woman at the embassy on business.

There were no immediate reports of American casualties. The embassy is located in the center of Sana, Yemen's capital, but the building is set far back from an outer security wall.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Yemen is the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden. Al Qaeda has maintained a steady presence here, especially as fighters from the militant group return from Iraq.

The first explosion, at 9:15 a.m., resounded for miles and sent a plume of black smoke over the city.

"It shook everything in my home," said Saddam Hussein, a Yemen man living about 200 yards from the embassy. "One big explosion, then smaller explosions, and gunfire."

The vehicle bomb exploded at the main gate, said embassy spokesman Ryan Gliha. There did not appear to be any major damage to the embassy building, Gliha said.

U.S. officials still were trying to determine the nature of several explosions that followed the vehicle bomb, Gliha said. Hussein and other nearby residents said the secondary blasts sounded much smaller, like grenades.

The intermittent explosions and heavy gunfire continued for about 10 minutes after the first blast, as scores of Yemeni forces rushed to the scene.

A half-hour after the blast, intermittent gunfire still crackled. Helicopters circled the embassy. Ambulances painted in green camouflage carried injured to the city's military hospital.

The Yemen embassy has been the target of numerous attacks since 2002. In the most recent assault, three mortar rounds hit a nearby school for girls in March, killing a security guard and injuring about 20 girls and others. Other attacks include one in 2006, when a man armed with an automatic weapon opened fire outside the embassy, saying he wanted to kill Americans. Security forces shot him and captured him, without other injuries.

Yemen was also the scene in 2000 of the deadly suicide attack against the USS Cole.