Dubai says Hamas man killed by European hit squad made up of 26 members Mossad and CIA involvement suspected
By BARBARA SURK (AP) – Feb 15, 2010
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Dubai's police chief said
Monday an 11-member hit squad carrying European passports and disguised in wigs,
fake beards and tennis clothes was behind the mysterious killing of a Hamas
commander in his hotel room last month. Authorities also released photos of the
11.
Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim did not directly implicate
Israel, as the Islamic militant group has. But the details he released at a news
conference in the Gulf emirate are the most comprehensive accusations by Dubai
authorities since the body of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found Jan. 20 in his luxury
hotel room near Dubai's international airport.
Tamim said it was possible that "leaders of certain
countries gave orders to their intelligence agents to kill" al-Mabhouh, one of
the founders of Hamas' military wing. But he did not name any countries.
Hamas has accused Israel and vowed revenge.
Tamim sketched out a highly organized operation in the
hours before the killing, clearly done with advance knowledge of the victim's
movements, and said the killers spent less than a day in the country. He said
forensic tests indicated al-Mabhouh died of suffocation, but lab analyses were
still under way to pinpoint other possible factors in his death.
He showed the news conference surveillance video of the
alleged assassination team arriving on separate flights to Dubai the day before
al-Mabhouh was found dead. The members of the alleged hit-squad checked into
separate hotels and used disguises that included wigs, fake beards, tennis
rackets and other sports gear during the operation, he said.
They paid for all expenses in cash and used different
mobile phone cards to avoid traces, he added.
The killing itself took just 10 minutes, he said. Several
members of the hit squad followed him — even riding in the same elevator to
determine his room number — and then checked into the room across the hall. Four
assassins among the group later entered his room in the Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel
while he was out, using an electronic device to open the door. There they waited
for him to return.
Tamim said they were careful not to disturb anything in the
room and somehow left the door locked from the inside to try to hide the fact
that they had broken in.
The team then headed for the airport, some of them flying
to Europe and others to Asia, he said.
He added that there was "serious penetration into al-Mabhouh's
security prior to his arrival" in Dubai, but that it appeared al-Mabhouh was
traveling alone.
"Hamas did not tell us who he was. He was walking around
alone," said Tamim. "If he was such an important leader, why didn't he have
people escorting him?"
The killing took place about five hours after al-Mabhouh
arrived at the hotel and all the 11 suspects were out of the United Arab
Emirates within 19 hours of their arrivals, he said.
Tamim claimed the suspects left behind some evidence, but
he declined to elaborate. He urged the countries linked to the alleged killers
to cooperate with the investigation and said the photos and other information
were being sent to Interpol and posted on the Internet.
Police released their photos, names, nationalities and
details of their passports, which authorities said were not fake. At least some
of the photos released appeared to be passport photographs and the one woman
among the group looked as if she might be wearing a blond wig.
He did not say whether any of the suspects have been
formally charged by prosecutors in Dubai, one of seven semiautonomous emirates
that make up the United Arab Emirates.
Tamim told reporters the alleged assassination team
comprised six British passport holders, three Irish and one each from France and
Germany. Hamas has accused Israel's Mossad secret service of carrying out the
killing and has pledged to strike back.
Britain's Foreign Office declined to comment Monday on the
allegations while officials seek more information on the case and the
individuals named by Tamim.
Israeli officials have accused al-Mabhouh of helping
smuggle rockets into the Gaza Strip, the coastal territory ruled by the militant
group.
A Hamas statement last month acknowledged al-Mabhouh was
involved in the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989 and said
he was still playing a "continuous role in supporting his brothers in the
resistance inside the occupied homeland" at the time of his death.
Hamas initially claimed al-Mabhouh was poisoned and
electrocuted. But Mohammed Nazzal, a Hamas leader, has given a somewhat
different account, saying al-Mabhouh was ambushed by Mossad agents who were
waiting for him in his hotel room. Nazzal said earlier this month that no poison
was involved. But he gave no evidence to back up his charge of Mossad
involvement.
Top Hamas figures have denied reports that al-Mabhouh was
en route to Iran, which is a major Hamas backer. But the group has not given
clear reasons for his presence in Dubai.
LATER
Dubai police today identified 15 more suspects wanted over
the murder of a senior Hamas official in the Gulf emirate last month, including
a further six who used British passports.
The announcement brings to 26 the total number of people
suspected of involvement in Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's assassination, which is widely
believed to have been the work of Israel's secret service, the Mossad.
The six new British names are Mark Daniel Sklar, Roy Allan
Cannon, Daniel Marc Schnur, Philip Carr, Stephen Keith Drake and Gabriella
Barney. A Foreign Office spokesman said the government believed their passport
details had been used fraudulently.
"We can confirm that six more UK passports have been
identified. We will seek to make contact with these individuals and offer
consular assistance as we have the previous individuals. We continue to work
closely with the Emirati authorities. The foreign secretary and others have made
clear we expect full Israeli co-operation."
It was not immediately clear where the six live.
The mother of Sklar, who declined to give her name, said
her son lived and worked in Israel. She said neither she nor her son had been
contacted by the Foreign Office, but she had spoken to him today after being
contacted by journalists. "He was very shocked," she said. "It's a bit
worrying".
Another of those named, an Israeli living in Tel Aviv, said
he was angry and shocked to find his identity had been stolen. Adam Korman, 34,
works in a shop in Rothschild Avenue, Tel Aviv. He was born in Australia but
emigrated to Israel as a child and holds joint citizenship. "I am shocked, it's
identity theft – simply unbelievable," he told Ynet, the website of the Yedioth
Ahronoth newspaper. "I am quite shocked and can't believe this is happening," he
said.
Korman is the eighth Israeli citizen so far to have his
identity stolen by the suspected assassins in Dubai. Like all the others, he
said he had not visited Dubai, but did travel around the world and regularly
flew back to Australia.
"I have been frightened and shocked since receiving the
news. It's irresponsible and a violation of human and individual rights to do
such a thing," he said.
Israeli officials have rejected claims of involvement by
the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service, although they have not
specifically denied any role. Instead, the government keeps to a policy of
"ambiguity" over Mossad operations. But on Tuesday Tzipi Livni, leader of the
opposition Kadima party and a former foreign minister, praised the killing. "The
fact that a terrorist was killed, and it doesn't matter if it was in Dubai or
Gaza, is good news to those fighting terrorism," she said at a conference in
Jerusalem.
Dubai police say the newly named suspects were believed to
have provided "logistical support" for the operation. Many had credit cards that
were issued by the same US bank.
At least three women are now suspected of involvement in
the hit, one of whom used a UK passport. Other suspects were travelling on
passports issued by Australia.
The total number of UK passports linked to the case has
risen to 12 and French passports to five. The suspected hit squad flew in from
Munich, Paris, Rome, Milan and Hong Kong.
David Miliband, the foreign secretary, has described as an
outrage the alleged abuse of British passports and an investigation is under way
by the serious organised crime agency, Soca.
A Soca spokesman said the agency was trying to track down
the people named by Dubai police. "The genuine passport holders have not been
confirmed as being directly linked to the murder," he said.
The EU has also condemned passport abuse, without
mentioning Israel.
The Dubai authorities have been using immigration records
and CCTV images of the suspects to try to piece together what happened in the
hours before Mabhouh's murder.
Israel has said Mabhouh played a key role in smuggling
Iranian-supplied rockets into the Gaza Strip and was involved in the abduction
and killing of two soldiers 20 years ago.
LATER
At least two suspected Israeli agents behind the murder
of a senior Hamas official fled to the US during their escape, Dubai police now
believe.
Police have now cast their net wider in their investigation
of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh’s killing, which officials in the Gulf state are now
certain was carried out by Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad.
The Wall Street Journal reported today that one of the
suspects carrying a British passport entered the US on February 14, while a
second arrived on American soil on January 21, two days after the murder, using
an Irish passport.
There are no records of either man leaving the US, but
Dubai’s police chief, Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan told a press conference
today that he believed all the suspects named in the case are currently in
Israel.
“All of them [are in Israel] … These are agents for the
Mossad, we know this," Khalfan told reporters in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the
United Arab Emirates. “They travelled to European countries and to the US using
the same documents they used to enter here.”
Speaking to The Times yesterday, insiders close to the case
confirmed that at least two of the 26 named suspects had been tracked through
the US. One of these was Roy Cannon, a British man living in Israel whose
identity was apparently stolen by the team behind the killing.
Dubai police have named 12 British passport holders among
the suspects. All are now believed to be UK citizens resident in Israel and
victims of identity theft.
Dubai police have already traced 13 credit cards issued by
the Meta Bank in Iowa and its New York-based distributor. The cards were used to
book flights and hotel rooms. The FBI is believed to be investigating.
Al-Mabhouh was killed in his Dubai hotel room on January
19, with his killers fleeing the country within hours of the murder. Police
tracked them back to Europe, with several flying via South Africa and Hong Kong.
Their movements after this are not clear.
Mr al-Mabhouh’s body was not found by hotel staff until
January 20. Results of a toxicology report released by police show that he was
injected with a fast-acting sedative before being suffocated.
Khalfan said today that while the agents remained in
Israel, they could not be extradited, but that they would be seized if they left
the country. Dubai has issued international arrest warrants for the 26 named
suspects through Interpol.
The police chief called upon European countries whose
citizens have had their identities stolen to continue their full cooperation in
the case and stressed that the UAE’s relationship with these nations would not
be affected.
"If israel and Mossad mistreated Europeans, we will not. If
the Mossad dipped their hand in blood and wiped it on European passports, our
treatment of Europeans will not be affected," he said.
British agents from the SOCA (Serious Organized Crime
Agency) are now in Israel to interview the 12 British citizens living in Israel
whose passports have been linked with the Dubai assassination.