The drama continues over last months’ spectacular assassination of senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. The newest dramatic chapters focus on the arrests — and the reaction of an Israeli leader to the event.
Dubai said on Wednesday that it has 15 more suspects in the January assassination of senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Authorities there have alleged his murder was part of an international plot using fake passports and identities stolen from a number of European nationals and coordinated by the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency.
Israel has refused to confirm or deny Mossad involvement and Dubai has not yet provided evidence to back up its claim.
A member of Hamas has also been detained in Syria in connection with the assassination Israeli media reported, citing a website tied to Fatah, Hamas’ principal Palestinian rival.
Wednesday’s news took the total number of suspects in Mr. Mahbouh’s murder to 26. As with the earlier announced suspects, most of the new 15 are alleged to have traveled to Dubai on European passports — the lion’s share from Britain but some from Ireland, France and Germany.
Dubai said one of the new suspects used an Australian passport, the first time the investigation into passport fraud and possible identity theft has expanded beyond Europe and the Middle East.
The alleged spy-thriller nature of Mabhouh’s killing emerged earlier this month when Dubai released the names, photographs, and passport details of what it described as an 11 member hit squad that arrived in Dubai, stalked Mabhouh with layered surveillance to his room at the Bustan Rotana Hotel, killed him with a combination of electrocution and suffocation, and then departed the country all in under 20 hours.
Most of the passports used by the first 11 suspects have since been found to have been fakes, and some of the names used belonged to British and Irish immigrants to Israel. The British foreign office was looking into whether the passports used by the new suspects — six of which Dubai said were British — are fakes.
And the reaction?
Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni’s is sure to spark some controversy. Read it HERE on RealClear World — and be sure to read Kevin Sullivan’s comments about it.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.