Interpol, the international police agency, has placed 11 members of an alleged hit squad suspected of assassinating Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas commander, at a luxury Dubai hotel last month, on its most-wanted list.

The suspects: (From left to right, top row): Evan Dennings (Irish), Gail Folliard (Irish), James Leonard Clarke (British), Jonathan Louis Graham (British); (From left to right, middle row) Michael Bodenheimer of (German), Paul John Keeley (British), Michael Lawrence Barney (British); (From left to right, bottom row) Peter Elvinger (French), Kevin Daveron (Irish), Melvyn Adam Mildiner (British), Stephen Daniel Hodes (British).

Interpol issued the red notices, its highest-level alert, on Thursday at the request of Dubai authorities.
The agency said it had reason to believe the suspects had stolen the identities of real people, using them as aliases to commit the murder.

Interpol’s “red notices” are not international arrest warrants but are put out after national authorities issue a warrant to help with finding suspects so they can be arrested or extradited.

In this case, the red notices were requested by Dubai police and Interpol’s bureau in Abu Dhabi, the international police organization said on its website www.interpol.int.

Earlier on Thursday, Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Dubai’s police chief, said he believed Israeli agents, using British, French, German and Irish passports, were behind the killing on January 19.

The National, an Abu Dhabi government-owned newspaper, quoted Tamim as saying that the investigation into the killing “reveal[s] that Mossad [Israel’s security service] is involved in the murder.”

Tamim told the publication’s website on Thursday that he “is 99 per cent, if not 100 per cent, that Mossad is standing behind the murder.”

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Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead in a hotel room in Dubai.

olice in Dubai have already released closed-circuit television footage of 11 individuals believed to have been involved in the killing of al-Mabhouh at the Al-Bustan hotel.
Tamim told Al-Bayan, another UAE newspaper based in Dubai, that “Dubai police has more evidence, apart from the tapes and photos that were revealed earlier.”

“The coming days will carry more surprises which will leave no room for doubt,” he said.

Israeli silence on the killing was broken on Wednesday by Avigdor Lieberman, the country’s foreign minister, who said that “there is no reason to think that it was the Israeli Mossad, and not some other intelligence service or country up to some mischief.”

However, he also said that Israel maintains a “policy of ambiguity” on intelligence matters.

London, Paris and Dublin have all demanded explanations from Israel as to why passport details of their citizens had been used by the suspected hit squad.

Britain summoned Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador to London, for a meeting with Peter Ricketts, who heads its diplomatic service, to explain how several UK citizens living in Israel found their passport details had been used by the alleged killers.

David Miliband, the British foreign minister, described the use of six British passports as an “outrage.”

Miliband said Ricketts had made clear “how seriously we take any suggestion of fraudulent use of British passports” and sought Israeli assistance.

“We hope and expect they will co-operate fully with the investigation that has been launched by the prime minister [Gordon Brown],” said Miliband, adding that he hoped to discuss the issue further with Lieberman, when both men meet in Brussels on Monday.

Three suspects in the killing of Hamas militant Mahmoud al-Mabhouh are shown in this CCTV handout from Dubai police February 15, 2010. Israel’s foreign minister said on Wednesday the use of the identities of foreign-born Israelis by a hit squad suspected of killing Hamas militant, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in Dubai did not prove the Mossad spy agency assassinated him. Men with the same names as seven of the 11 suspects whose European passport photos were distributed by Dubai live in Israel, and those reached by reporters insisted their identities had been stolen and noted the pictures were not a match. Handout dated February 15, 2010. REUTERS/Dubai Police

Britain’s Serious Organized Crime Agency is to lead an investigation into the matter in close co-operation with the Emirati authorities.
Paris also demanded that Israel explain how an apparently forged French passport had been used by the suspected assassins.

“We are asking for explanations from Israel’s embassy in France over the circumstances of the use of a fake French passport in the assassination of a Hamas member in Dubai,” said the country’s foreign ministry.

Dublin followed suit, calling in the Israeli ambassador to grill him about how the suspects had used passport details of three Irish citizens, one of whom has never visited Israel.

Sources within Hamas, which has already blamed Israel for being behind the killing, have also accused members of a rival Palestinian faction of helping Israel to kill al-Mabhouh.

The sources accused members of the Fatah party, headed by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, of aiding the murder.

In the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian territory run by Hamas, anger spilled onto the streets on Wednesday with thousands of people gathering at a rally vowing to avenge the death of al-Mabhouh.

Al-Mabhouh was a senior commander and one of the founders of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’armed wing.

Khaled Meshaal, Hamas’ leader and himself a victim of an attempted Israeli assassination, pointed the finger of blame squarely at Mossad.

“The time for promises and talk of revenge is done. Now is the time for action,” he said, addressing the Gaza rally via video from Damascus, where he is based.

Israeli media has seen mixed reactions, with some praising al-Mabhouh’s death, and others criticizing a sloppy operation.

A front-page commentary in the daily newspaper Haaretz called for Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, to be removed from office.

But a source close to Dagan told the Reuters news agency that the intelligence chief has no intention to resign before the end of his term later this year.

For Dagan to resign on the heels of a political row over al-Mabhouh’s death would be to admit having had a role in it, the source said.