Source: Sydney Morning Herald 20 Feb. 2010
The author, Paul McGeough, is the author of 'Kill Khalid: Mossad's Failed Hit … And The Rise Of Hamas' (Allen & Unwin).
========================================
THAT same old feeling for Benjamin Netanyahu must be excruciating. And it is probably cold comfort for the Israeli Prime Minister that his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, is likely to suffer along with him.
When Netanyahu last was his nation's leader, Mossad served up a dish of malodorous failure when it bungled the attempted assassination of a future leader of Hamas. That was in 1997, when the spy agency's plan to inject a mysterious poison into Khalid Mishal's ear turned to farce in the streets of Amman in Jordan.
Twelve years on, Netanyahu has again let Mossad loose and as a result he now presides over a diplomatic and PR nightmare in the wake of an otherwise successful hit on another senior Hamas figure who the Israelis claim was about to close an arms deal in the United Arab Emirates.
As is often the case in the Middle East, this one has percolated slowly - the body of the arms dealer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found in Room 230 of the plush Al Bustan Rotana Hotel on January 20.
But it was not until this week - with Mabhouh long in the grave and seemingly forgotten in the wider world - that the whole business erupted as a media sensation for Netanyahu.
Had Mossad's indiscretion been to offend just the Dubai sheikhs, already on their knees financially, Israel might have fobbed them off - possibly enlisting Washington to back-channel a half-hearted apology.
But in an operation that almost certainly required a personal sign-off by Netanyahu, Israel has given deep offence in London, Dublin, Paris and Berlin - because the Mossad team used these governments' passports as cover for its hitmen in Dubai.
But this story has more. The passport abuse is the cause of official offence in the capitals of these robust democracies - where opposition politicians, pressure groups and the media routinely put the squeeze on governments to help them overcome any reluctance to investigate such matters.
The capturing of virtually every move by the Mossad team on the emirate's ubiquitous closed-circuit TV cameras has made this an electrifying story around the world. Their antics at Dubai airport; at the hotel - some of them entering and leaving the room in which they killed the Hamas man; and Monty Pythonesque moments as others darted into rest rooms to emerge minutes later in new wig and/or beard disguises have provided near-voyeuristic images to go with an otherwise po-faced yarn about passport abuse.
And just to kick along the Israelis' sense of embarrassment, those damnable Dubaians have cleverly taken their mountain of CCTV footage and edited it down to a 27-minute clip so crisp that it warms the cockles of the hearts of editors at newsdesks around the globe.
Therein lies the silliness of the Mossad planners. Had they had just half an ear to the wall-to-wall coverage of a celebrated murder in Dubai - when an Egyptian billionaire had his lover, the Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim, eliminated in 2008 - they would have been aware that local authorities had cracked the case by falling back on the same CCTV cameras that they used to piece together Mossad's madness.
Back in 1997, when Mossad tried to take down Khalid Mishal, who today heads Hamas, King Hussein of Jordan had Netanyahu firmly by the cojones because one of Mishal's quick-witted bodyguards managed to capture two of the Mossad agents - thereby forcing Israel to trade prisoners. Netanyahu's humiliation was complete when the then US president, Bill Clinton, forced him to hand over samples of the poison and an antidote to Jordanian doctors fighting to save Mishal's life.
In the case of the January visit to Dubai by Mossad, this sense of acute embarrassment at the capture of one's associates may fall to Mahmoud Abbas, the head of Fatah, Hamas's arch-rival in the contest for Palestinian hearts and minds, and who is buttressed as head of the Palestinian Authority by the US and Israel.
Details remain sketchy but Jordanian officials have delivered to their Dubai counterparts two Palestinians who reportedly had fled to Amman from Dubai in January after helping the Mossad team that murdered the Hamas arms dealer. In previous incarnations, both are said to have served in Abbas's Fatah-dominated security forces in Gaza, where their duty was to wrong-foot and nobble Hamas.
It is par for the course for Abbas's critics to ridicule the extent to which he is propped up by the US and Israel, helping to manage the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. But things could become very ugly for Abbas and Fatah if, as a result of events in Dubai, he is accused of collaborating with Israel in the killing of a Hamas leader who, if only because of the manner of his parting, will be revered as a true soldier for Palestine.
One of the admirable performances in all these curious circumstances is the performance of the Dubai authorities. They were entitled to be affronted by the behaviour of the Israelis, but they waited for a full month before announcing on Thursday that they were 99 per cent certain in their belief that Mossad dumped this mess on their doorstep.
Showing posts with label hamas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hamas. Show all posts
Friday, 19 February 2010
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Hamas death in Dubai: Details of suspects released
Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Chief of Dubai Police displaying pictures of the 11 wanted suspects
Source: Bloomberg, Gulf News
Photo: WAMSource: Bloomberg, Gulf News
===============
Dubai Public Prosecution issued international arrest warrants for all suspects involved in the murder of a senior Hamas leader, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, last month.
“The United Arab Emirates has international judicial cooperation with most of the world’s countries, allowing it to seek their extradition wherever they may be captured,” Attorney General Essam Essa al-Humaidan wrote in an e-mailed statement today.
Dubai police on Feb. 15 released names and photographs of 11 suspects they say took part in al-Mabhouh’s murder. Two Palestinians were detained in connection with the killing, Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim said at a press conference yesterday. The 11 suspects included six British passport holders, three Irish, one German and one of French nationality, Tamim said. Dubai will submit their names to Interpol for arrest warrants, he said.
Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha told Al Arabiya television today that the French Foreign Ministry contacted the organization and said the French passport used by one of the suspects was forged.
Al-Mabhouh, a founder of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Hamas movement, arrived in Dubai on Jan. 19 and his body was found in his hotel there the following day. Police believe he died of suffocation, although they have not ruled out “electric shock,” Tamim said. Further tests are being conducted, he said.
Hamas has accused Israel’s Mossad spy agency of being behind the killing. The Israeli government, which has no diplomatic relations with the U.A.E., had no comment on the matter. Tamim said that Dubai has not ruled out any possibility in al-Mabhouh’s death.
Israel accused al-Mabhouh of being behind the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip in 1988. Most of those alleged to have been involved in the soldiers’ deaths have since been detained or killed by Israel, including Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who died in an Israeli strike in 2004.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Hamas leader's death in Dubai: Dubai police to issue arrest warrants
=================================
Dubai Police will issue arrest warrants for 11 suspects carrying European passports, believed to be the killers of Mahmoud Al Mabhouh, the senior Hamas commander who was assassinated in a Dubai hotel room last month.
Two Palestinians have already been arrested and are being investigated on suspicions that they provided logistical support to the killers, Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Chief of Dubai Police, said at a press conference held at the Media Office of the Dubai Government.
Some of the 11 suspects including a woman fled the country around the time of the crime on January 19. The Palestinians, however, are UAE residents, the police chief said.
Dubai Police managed to crack the case in less than 24 hours, Dahi said. "This is another achievement for Dubai Police."
A police video, combining CCTV footage from the Dubai airport, a number of hotels and shopping malls, showed the arrival of the suspects and Al Mabhouh into Dubai, their checking into various city hotels and the hours before the Palestinian commander was killed in room 230 in the Bustan Rotana Hotel, near the airport.
A surveillance team had followed the victim around the city. Some of the suspected killers disguised their appearance at various times.
"This is a highly sophisticated operation conducted by people who knew when Al Mabhouh would arrive in the country," Dahi said.
The suspects used "highly sophisticated communication instruments" and during their conversations they used encrypted messages, Dahi said. "The communication tools they used are not available in the UAE."
They came from several European countries and left to European destinations and one to Hong Kong. "We know where they are right now and even their residences," Dahi said.
"Arrest warrants through Interpol are being issued and if the European countries cooperated we will be highly appreciative but if they refused we will also reduce our cooperation with those authorities." He told Gulf News earlier that the UAE has no extradition treaties with many of those countries but the police expect full cooperation.
"In my personal opinion I think many parties are involved in the crime and all [Al Mabhouh's] enemies are potential suspects so it is not the time to point fingers at a certain party."
Dahi said the Hamas leader had arrived in Dubai from Damascus en route to Sudan and later to China. He was expected to be here for only one day.
Sunday, 7 February 2010
Irish connection in Dubai Hamas murder
Source: The Herald (Ireland) 5th February 2010
=========================================
Members of a hit squad who killed a top Hamas military commander used Irish passports to enter and leave Dubai, it's been claimed. The suspected Israeli hit team, including at least one woman, entered the United Arab Emirates using Irish documents, police authorities said.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh (50), held responsible by Israel for the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers in 1989, died in mysterious circumstances on January 20 in a Dubai hotel room. A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman told the Herald today: "We are aware of the media reports and we are in contact with authorities locally to try and determine the truth of the reports." Al-Mabhouh was said to have been shocked with an electric weapon held to his legs and then suffocated or poisoned.
Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel for the killing, but Israeli news media claimed al-Mabhouh had many enemies and could have been killed by other Arab factions.
Up to seven people were said to have been involved in al-Mabhouh's killing, four of whom used Irish passports to enter Dubai and who later fled to a "European country" after the killing, according to police sources in Dubai.
Extradited
Declining to reveal their identities, an official said UAE security personnel were co-ordinating with Interpol to have them extradited.
Al-Mabhouh had been out for most of the day and returned to his room only after 9pm, police said. Pathologists were said to have determined the cause of death as asphyxiation, probably with a pillow found near the body and stained with blood. A room cleaner found his body the next day.
He had travelled to Dubai under another name. The victim was said to have been in charge of weapons procurement for Hamas and was on a mission in Dubai.
His brother said it was not the first attempt on his life. Six months ago, he was rushed to hospital in Dubai in a coma and treated for poisoning.
Mr Mabhouh's funeral was held in Damascus, where he had lived for 20 years with his wife and children.
In 1986, US officials, including Oliver North, reportedly used Irish passports to travel to Iran to offer missiles for hostages. The passports were said to be real but the identities written into the documents were fake.
=========================================
Members of a hit squad who killed a top Hamas military commander used Irish passports to enter and leave Dubai, it's been claimed. The suspected Israeli hit team, including at least one woman, entered the United Arab Emirates using Irish documents, police authorities said.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh (50), held responsible by Israel for the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers in 1989, died in mysterious circumstances on January 20 in a Dubai hotel room. A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman told the Herald today: "We are aware of the media reports and we are in contact with authorities locally to try and determine the truth of the reports." Al-Mabhouh was said to have been shocked with an electric weapon held to his legs and then suffocated or poisoned.
Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel for the killing, but Israeli news media claimed al-Mabhouh had many enemies and could have been killed by other Arab factions.
Up to seven people were said to have been involved in al-Mabhouh's killing, four of whom used Irish passports to enter Dubai and who later fled to a "European country" after the killing, according to police sources in Dubai.
Extradited
Declining to reveal their identities, an official said UAE security personnel were co-ordinating with Interpol to have them extradited.
Al-Mabhouh had been out for most of the day and returned to his room only after 9pm, police said. Pathologists were said to have determined the cause of death as asphyxiation, probably with a pillow found near the body and stained with blood. A room cleaner found his body the next day.
He had travelled to Dubai under another name. The victim was said to have been in charge of weapons procurement for Hamas and was on a mission in Dubai.
His brother said it was not the first attempt on his life. Six months ago, he was rushed to hospital in Dubai in a coma and treated for poisoning.
Mr Mabhouh's funeral was held in Damascus, where he had lived for 20 years with his wife and children.
In 1986, US officials, including Oliver North, reportedly used Irish passports to travel to Iran to offer missiles for hostages. The passports were said to be real but the identities written into the documents were fake.
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Death in Dubai: whodunnit?
Source: Sydney Morning Herald. The writer, Jason Koutsoukis, is the SMH's Middle East correspondent.
========================
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's death in Dubai had all the hallmarks of a hit by the Jewish state's spy agency, writes Jason Koutsoukis in Jerusalem.
The Hamas gunrunner Mahmoud al-Mabhouh arrived in Dubai on an Emirates flight from Syria at 3pm on January 19.
The Dubai police chief, Lieutenant-General Dahi Khalfan al-Tamim, said Mabhouh checked into his room at the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel about 4pm. After depositing some documents in the hotel safe, Mabhouh went out for dinner, arriving back at his room by 9pm.
Police believe that shortly after, the usually security-conscious Mabhouh, who routinely blocked the doors to his hotel rooms with heavy furniture, opened his door to a woman.
Hours later Mabhouh, 49, was dead, believed poisoned by a mystery drug that at first led investigators to think he had suffered a heart attack.
Dubai police believe that the suspects, at least seven people carrying European passports, were out of the country before Mabhouh's body was discovered by hotel housekeeping staff at midday on January 20.
Later that day, Hamas officials in Damascus went so far as to put out a statement saying that Mabhouh had died of natural causes.
Nearly 10 days later, autopsy blood results returned from France suggested otherwise.
In the ever-suspicious world of Middle Eastern intrigue, Mabhouh's death had all the hallmarks of an assassination by Israel's national intelligence agency, Mossad.
Israel certainly did not lack motive.
In 1989, Mabhouh was part of a team of Palestinian resistance fighters who kidnapped and killed two Israeli soldiers stationed in the Gaza Strip.
Israel either killed or arrested most of those believed responsible for the deaths, but Mabhouh got away.
Eventually arriving in the Syrian capital, where Hamas had been allowed to establish its political headquarters, Mabhouh rose through the ranks to become the movement's liaison with its main weapons supplier, Tehran, responsible for co-ordinating the movement of weapons from Iran to Gaza.
In November the chief of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Major-General Amos Yadlin, appeared before the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee.
Yadlin said Hamas had just test-fired a rocket with a range of 60 kilometres, within range of Israel's business and financial capital, Tel Aviv, a rocket that he said had been supplied by Iran.
At Mabhouh's funeral in Damascus, 10 days after his death, the Hamas leader, Khaled Meshal, vowed revenge against Israel.
''You have assassinated an enormous man who bravely killed some of your soldiers, but this is a passing joy,'' Meshal said. ''I tell you, Zionists, do not be joyous. You killed him, but his sons will fight you.''
In September 1997, Meshal was himself the target of a bungled Mossad assassination attempt in the Jordanian capital of Amman that bears some resemblance to the way Mabhouh was killed. Meshal was getting out of his car when a man posing as a Canadian tourist approached him and squirted something in his ear.
At first, Meshal seemed fine. It was not until hours later, as he slipped in and out of consciousness, that doctors realised that he had been injected with a powerful painkiller that was shutting down his respiratory system.
Luckily for Meshal, his bodyguard had seized one of the attackers, whom local police were able to tie to Mossad. King Hussein of Jordan pressured Israel's then prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads Israel again today, to hand over the antidote.
Since the 1960s, when Mossad captured the leading Nazi Adolf Eichman, Israel has been accused by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Hezbollah of involvement in the assassination of their organisations' leaders. Israel has never responded to the accusations.
''The one part of this story that suggests Israel had something to do with it is that Mabhouh was injected with something,'' says a former Israeli security operative who spoke to the Herald this week.
Asking that only his first name be used, Itamar, who is the managing director of a specialist security consultancy, said he neither would, nor could, confirm Israel's involvement.
''But the method is indicative. Very clean and quiet, and it enabled the team to exit the country well before the body was discovered,'' he said.
The parts of the story that did not add up, Itamar said, were suggestions that Mabhouh had been tortured with an electrical device, and then possibly strangled.
''I don't think a highly trained Israeli team would bother with this simply because it would take up too much time,'' Itamar said.
So if not Israel, who?
A report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz this week said many people across the Arab world wanted Mabhouh dead.
''Unofficially, Hamas has conceded that quite a few parties had an interest in taking out Mabhouh, who had become central to the Iran-Gaza Strip axis,'' the report said, without saying who those parties might be.
Whether or not Israel was involved, proving it will be near impossible. ''Dubai police say they have the identities of seven suspects,'' Itamar said.
''Why haven't they been released? They say they have hotel security footage of people entering Mabhouh's room. Why have we not seen it?
''The answer is because any information or photographs, or security footage they have, it doesn't tell us anything.''
SUSPECTED MOSSAD ASSASSINATIONS
Zuheir Mohsen: The Palestinian leader of a pro-Syrian faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation was shot in the head on July 15, 1979, as he returned to his flat in Cannes, France.
Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir, more commonly known as Abu Jihad: A high ranking member of the PLO faction Fatah, he was shot multiple times in front of his wife and children near his home in Tunisia.
Fathi Shikaki: Founder of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, he was shot multiple times on October 26, 1995 in front of the Diplomat Hotel in Sliema, Malta.
Imad Mughniyeh: Liaison officer between the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and its main ally, Iran, Mughniyeh was killed in Damascus on February 12, 2008, when the headrest of a car he was in exploded.
Mohammed Suleiman: A Syrian general and adviser to the President, Bashar al-Assad, and an intermediary between the Syrian government, Hezbollah and Iran. He was shot in the head on August 1, 2008, on a beach near the Syrian city of Tartous.
========================
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's death in Dubai had all the hallmarks of a hit by the Jewish state's spy agency, writes Jason Koutsoukis in Jerusalem.
The Hamas gunrunner Mahmoud al-Mabhouh arrived in Dubai on an Emirates flight from Syria at 3pm on January 19.
The Dubai police chief, Lieutenant-General Dahi Khalfan al-Tamim, said Mabhouh checked into his room at the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel about 4pm. After depositing some documents in the hotel safe, Mabhouh went out for dinner, arriving back at his room by 9pm.
Police believe that shortly after, the usually security-conscious Mabhouh, who routinely blocked the doors to his hotel rooms with heavy furniture, opened his door to a woman.
Hours later Mabhouh, 49, was dead, believed poisoned by a mystery drug that at first led investigators to think he had suffered a heart attack.
Dubai police believe that the suspects, at least seven people carrying European passports, were out of the country before Mabhouh's body was discovered by hotel housekeeping staff at midday on January 20.
Later that day, Hamas officials in Damascus went so far as to put out a statement saying that Mabhouh had died of natural causes.
Nearly 10 days later, autopsy blood results returned from France suggested otherwise.
In the ever-suspicious world of Middle Eastern intrigue, Mabhouh's death had all the hallmarks of an assassination by Israel's national intelligence agency, Mossad.
Israel certainly did not lack motive.
In 1989, Mabhouh was part of a team of Palestinian resistance fighters who kidnapped and killed two Israeli soldiers stationed in the Gaza Strip.
Israel either killed or arrested most of those believed responsible for the deaths, but Mabhouh got away.
Eventually arriving in the Syrian capital, where Hamas had been allowed to establish its political headquarters, Mabhouh rose through the ranks to become the movement's liaison with its main weapons supplier, Tehran, responsible for co-ordinating the movement of weapons from Iran to Gaza.
In November the chief of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Major-General Amos Yadlin, appeared before the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee.
Yadlin said Hamas had just test-fired a rocket with a range of 60 kilometres, within range of Israel's business and financial capital, Tel Aviv, a rocket that he said had been supplied by Iran.
At Mabhouh's funeral in Damascus, 10 days after his death, the Hamas leader, Khaled Meshal, vowed revenge against Israel.
''You have assassinated an enormous man who bravely killed some of your soldiers, but this is a passing joy,'' Meshal said. ''I tell you, Zionists, do not be joyous. You killed him, but his sons will fight you.''
In September 1997, Meshal was himself the target of a bungled Mossad assassination attempt in the Jordanian capital of Amman that bears some resemblance to the way Mabhouh was killed. Meshal was getting out of his car when a man posing as a Canadian tourist approached him and squirted something in his ear.
At first, Meshal seemed fine. It was not until hours later, as he slipped in and out of consciousness, that doctors realised that he had been injected with a powerful painkiller that was shutting down his respiratory system.
Luckily for Meshal, his bodyguard had seized one of the attackers, whom local police were able to tie to Mossad. King Hussein of Jordan pressured Israel's then prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads Israel again today, to hand over the antidote.
Since the 1960s, when Mossad captured the leading Nazi Adolf Eichman, Israel has been accused by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Hezbollah of involvement in the assassination of their organisations' leaders. Israel has never responded to the accusations.
''The one part of this story that suggests Israel had something to do with it is that Mabhouh was injected with something,'' says a former Israeli security operative who spoke to the Herald this week.
Asking that only his first name be used, Itamar, who is the managing director of a specialist security consultancy, said he neither would, nor could, confirm Israel's involvement.
''But the method is indicative. Very clean and quiet, and it enabled the team to exit the country well before the body was discovered,'' he said.
The parts of the story that did not add up, Itamar said, were suggestions that Mabhouh had been tortured with an electrical device, and then possibly strangled.
''I don't think a highly trained Israeli team would bother with this simply because it would take up too much time,'' Itamar said.
So if not Israel, who?
A report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz this week said many people across the Arab world wanted Mabhouh dead.
''Unofficially, Hamas has conceded that quite a few parties had an interest in taking out Mabhouh, who had become central to the Iran-Gaza Strip axis,'' the report said, without saying who those parties might be.
Whether or not Israel was involved, proving it will be near impossible. ''Dubai police say they have the identities of seven suspects,'' Itamar said.
''Why haven't they been released? They say they have hotel security footage of people entering Mabhouh's room. Why have we not seen it?
''The answer is because any information or photographs, or security footage they have, it doesn't tell us anything.''
SUSPECTED MOSSAD ASSASSINATIONS
Zuheir Mohsen: The Palestinian leader of a pro-Syrian faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation was shot in the head on July 15, 1979, as he returned to his flat in Cannes, France.
Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir, more commonly known as Abu Jihad: A high ranking member of the PLO faction Fatah, he was shot multiple times in front of his wife and children near his home in Tunisia.
Fathi Shikaki: Founder of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, he was shot multiple times on October 26, 1995 in front of the Diplomat Hotel in Sliema, Malta.
Imad Mughniyeh: Liaison officer between the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and its main ally, Iran, Mughniyeh was killed in Damascus on February 12, 2008, when the headrest of a car he was in exploded.
Mohammed Suleiman: A Syrian general and adviser to the President, Bashar al-Assad, and an intermediary between the Syrian government, Hezbollah and Iran. He was shot in the head on August 1, 2008, on a beach near the Syrian city of Tartous.
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Dubai Police and Hamas refute Israeli claims
Source: Gulf News 3 Feb 2010
==============
Chief of Dubai Police and Hamas officials on Tuesday made light of an Israeli press report pointing fingers at Arab parties, and not Israelis, for the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai two weeks ago.
"As usual, they are lying," Lt General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Chief of Dubai Police, told Gulf News when reached for his comment on a report published by the Haaretz newspaper.
Hamas officials, also, accused the Israeli media of deception and "covering their crime", a reference to the killing of senior Hamas military commander Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in his hotel room.
Claims
According to the report published by Haaretz, preliminary investigation conducted by Hamas "suggests that the assassination …. was likely carried out by agents of an Arab government, and not by Israel's Mossad spy agency".
The paper went on to claim: "A Hamas source told Haaretz on Monday that Al Mabhouh was wanted by authorities in both Jordan and Egypt, where he previously spent a year in prison."
Hamas officials, however, stressed that no official from the resistance group would give such statements to an Israeli newspaper. Osama Hamdan, Hamas spokesperson in Beirut, said: "This is fabrication… They [Israelis] are aiming to create problem."
Investigations ongoing
Musheer Al Masri, a Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, too, scoffed at the Israeli report. He explained that "investigations were not completed until this moment".
Investigations into the assassination, however, had come a long way and would hopefully be completed in the near future, he said.
Lt Gen Dahi, meanwhile, asserted that investigations into the case are being conducted "in authentic, technical and scientific way".
In a statement carried by WAM, he observed: "Anyone attempting to pass unseen behind our backs, and gets involved in matters that are considered as crimes by the law should protect their own backs."
He added: "This goes for whoever enters the country whether they are from Hamas, Mossad or any other intelligence service."
Dubai Police have not excluded any possible angle in the killing but indicated that the crime points to Mossad involvement.
Few details have emerged so far about the assassination as well as the purpose of Al Mabhouh's visit to Dubai. Haaretz said he had left the hotel "between 4.30 pm and 5.00 pm for a meeting" and that "Hamas claims to know the identity of his Dubai contact".
Hamas officials, however, remained tight-lipped.
"It is difficult for me to give information on this issue in particular," Hamdan replied to a question on Al Mabhouh's visit to Dubai.
"This is a sensitive issue, and is related to the [ongoing] investigations. We are keen that nothing will come out of our side that will distort them [investigations]," he explained.
==============
Chief of Dubai Police and Hamas officials on Tuesday made light of an Israeli press report pointing fingers at Arab parties, and not Israelis, for the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai two weeks ago.
"As usual, they are lying," Lt General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Chief of Dubai Police, told Gulf News when reached for his comment on a report published by the Haaretz newspaper.
Hamas officials, also, accused the Israeli media of deception and "covering their crime", a reference to the killing of senior Hamas military commander Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in his hotel room.
Claims
According to the report published by Haaretz, preliminary investigation conducted by Hamas "suggests that the assassination …. was likely carried out by agents of an Arab government, and not by Israel's Mossad spy agency".
The paper went on to claim: "A Hamas source told Haaretz on Monday that Al Mabhouh was wanted by authorities in both Jordan and Egypt, where he previously spent a year in prison."
Hamas officials, however, stressed that no official from the resistance group would give such statements to an Israeli newspaper. Osama Hamdan, Hamas spokesperson in Beirut, said: "This is fabrication… They [Israelis] are aiming to create problem."
Investigations ongoing
Musheer Al Masri, a Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, too, scoffed at the Israeli report. He explained that "investigations were not completed until this moment".
Investigations into the assassination, however, had come a long way and would hopefully be completed in the near future, he said.
Lt Gen Dahi, meanwhile, asserted that investigations into the case are being conducted "in authentic, technical and scientific way".
In a statement carried by WAM, he observed: "Anyone attempting to pass unseen behind our backs, and gets involved in matters that are considered as crimes by the law should protect their own backs."
He added: "This goes for whoever enters the country whether they are from Hamas, Mossad or any other intelligence service."
Dubai Police have not excluded any possible angle in the killing but indicated that the crime points to Mossad involvement.
Few details have emerged so far about the assassination as well as the purpose of Al Mabhouh's visit to Dubai. Haaretz said he had left the hotel "between 4.30 pm and 5.00 pm for a meeting" and that "Hamas claims to know the identity of his Dubai contact".
Hamas officials, however, remained tight-lipped.
"It is difficult for me to give information on this issue in particular," Hamdan replied to a question on Al Mabhouh's visit to Dubai.
"This is a sensitive issue, and is related to the [ongoing] investigations. We are keen that nothing will come out of our side that will distort them [investigations]," he explained.
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Hamas death in Dubai: Officials say suspects identified
Photo: Associated Press
===============
Dubai Government media office has announced that Dubai police have identified suspects in the murder crime of Palestinian Hamas member Mahmoud Abdul Raouf Hassan and that they would soon track them down and refer to court in conjunction with International Police (Interpol).
The suspects were reported to have left the country before the murder crime was reported. The deceased's body was later discovered at a hotel in Dubai.
An official security source in Dubai said that the initial investigations suggest that the murder was inflicted by experienced criminal gang, who had been tracking down the movements of the victim before entering the UAE. "Despite quick skill exhibited by murderers, yet they left behind evidence at the scene of crime that would help in tracking them down at earliest. Dubai police no longer believe in ambiguous or unknown crime".
The source further disclosed that the investigations revealed that the suspects hold European passports, adding that Dubai police would embark in arrangements with Interpol to arrest the suspects and bring them to books. "The evidence will speedily help competent authorities to track down the suspects".
Known as Mahmoud Al Mabhouh, the deceased, a Palestinian, entered into the UAE at 3.15PM, on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010, from an Arab country. His body was found the following day at afternoon on Jan. 20, 2010, at a hotel he resided at in Dubai.
Hamas commander killed in Dubai
Source: Reuters by Khaled Yacoub Oweis
==============
The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas accused Israel on Friday of assassinating one of its top military commanders in a Dubai hotel, and the Dubai police chief said he could not rule out the involvement of Mossad.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, an Israeli target since engineering the capture of Israeli soldiers in the 1980s during a Palestinian uprising, was killed on January 20, a Hamas official told Reuters in the Syrian capital Damascus.
"I cannot rule out the possibility of Mossad involvement in the assassination of Mabhouh," Dubai police chief Dhahi Khalfan Tamim told Al Jazeera television, referring to the Israeli intelligence agency.
He said he could not announce the nationalities of those involved.
Dubai police had earlier said that a "criminal gang" had been following the victim's movements before his arrival in the United Arab Emirates.
An official statement said most of the suspects had European passports and left the country after the killing.
The United Arab Emirates does not have a peace treaty with Israel but has hosted Israeli officials and does business with Israeli companies.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal made an impassioned speech to thousands of mourners at Mabhouh's funeral on Friday at the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk outside Damascus. A green Hamas flag covered the body as it was lowered into the grave.
Meshaal described Mabhouh as a "great man" who fought the Israelis for 30 years.
"I say to you Zionists, do not rejoice. You killed him but his sons will fight you," he said. "God already took our leaders and loved ones, but resistance goes on. Palestine is a blessed land. It will not remain patient."
Mabhouh's death lengthens Hamas's list of what it describes as "martyrs," and is a setback for the group in its fight against the Jewish state.
RESISTANCE MOVEMENT
Israel has killed dozens of leaders and military figures in Hamas, founded two decades ago as a religious resistance movement against Israeli occupation.
"I cannot reveal the circumstances (of the killing)," said Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas's politburo.
Rishq said Mabhouh, 50, was an important member of the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades, Hamas's military wing.
He said the brigades "will respond (against Israel) in the appropriate time and place," but added that Hamas would not let the killing derail efforts to arrange a prisoner exchange with Israel, which has run into difficulties.
Mabhouh, who was born in the Gaza Strip but had lived in Syria since 1989, was killed a day after he arrived in Dubai, Rishq said.
A Hamas source in Gaza said Mabhouh was an active commander "until the moment of his assassination." He did not elaborate.
Another Palestinian source said Mabhouh was found dead in his hotel room in Dubai. He had barricaded the door of his room with chairs, a standard precaution by a man who believed Israeli intelligence had been after him for 20 years.
"It seems that an autopsy was ordered and found traces of poison in his body. Mabhouh was also ill. Hamas controls the information on this," the source said. "He was one of their main military guys, although not a crucial figure," the source added.
Mabhouh's brother Fayek told Reuters in Gaza his brother was killed "by strangulation after receiving an electric shock" and that two people were involved in the killing.
Syria and Iran are the main backers of Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
Rishq, who lives in exile in Damascus along with several of Hamas's main figures, said Mabhouh engineered the capture of two Israeli soldiers during the Palestinian uprising in the 1980s. The soldiers were later killed.
Mabhouh was imprisoned several times by Israeli forces, who also razed his home in Gaza, Rishq added.
The United States, which has started a rapprochement with Damascus, wants Syrian authorities to help neutralize Hamas as an armed force.
Syria, which is seeking peace with Israel, resisted U.S. pressure several years ago to expel the Hamas leadership.
==============
The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas accused Israel on Friday of assassinating one of its top military commanders in a Dubai hotel, and the Dubai police chief said he could not rule out the involvement of Mossad.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, an Israeli target since engineering the capture of Israeli soldiers in the 1980s during a Palestinian uprising, was killed on January 20, a Hamas official told Reuters in the Syrian capital Damascus.
"I cannot rule out the possibility of Mossad involvement in the assassination of Mabhouh," Dubai police chief Dhahi Khalfan Tamim told Al Jazeera television, referring to the Israeli intelligence agency.
He said he could not announce the nationalities of those involved.
Dubai police had earlier said that a "criminal gang" had been following the victim's movements before his arrival in the United Arab Emirates.
An official statement said most of the suspects had European passports and left the country after the killing.
The United Arab Emirates does not have a peace treaty with Israel but has hosted Israeli officials and does business with Israeli companies.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal made an impassioned speech to thousands of mourners at Mabhouh's funeral on Friday at the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk outside Damascus. A green Hamas flag covered the body as it was lowered into the grave.
Meshaal described Mabhouh as a "great man" who fought the Israelis for 30 years.
"I say to you Zionists, do not rejoice. You killed him but his sons will fight you," he said. "God already took our leaders and loved ones, but resistance goes on. Palestine is a blessed land. It will not remain patient."
Mabhouh's death lengthens Hamas's list of what it describes as "martyrs," and is a setback for the group in its fight against the Jewish state.
RESISTANCE MOVEMENT
Israel has killed dozens of leaders and military figures in Hamas, founded two decades ago as a religious resistance movement against Israeli occupation.
"I cannot reveal the circumstances (of the killing)," said Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas's politburo.
Rishq said Mabhouh, 50, was an important member of the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades, Hamas's military wing.
He said the brigades "will respond (against Israel) in the appropriate time and place," but added that Hamas would not let the killing derail efforts to arrange a prisoner exchange with Israel, which has run into difficulties.
Mabhouh, who was born in the Gaza Strip but had lived in Syria since 1989, was killed a day after he arrived in Dubai, Rishq said.
A Hamas source in Gaza said Mabhouh was an active commander "until the moment of his assassination." He did not elaborate.
Another Palestinian source said Mabhouh was found dead in his hotel room in Dubai. He had barricaded the door of his room with chairs, a standard precaution by a man who believed Israeli intelligence had been after him for 20 years.
"It seems that an autopsy was ordered and found traces of poison in his body. Mabhouh was also ill. Hamas controls the information on this," the source said. "He was one of their main military guys, although not a crucial figure," the source added.
Mabhouh's brother Fayek told Reuters in Gaza his brother was killed "by strangulation after receiving an electric shock" and that two people were involved in the killing.
Syria and Iran are the main backers of Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
Rishq, who lives in exile in Damascus along with several of Hamas's main figures, said Mabhouh engineered the capture of two Israeli soldiers during the Palestinian uprising in the 1980s. The soldiers were later killed.
Mabhouh was imprisoned several times by Israeli forces, who also razed his home in Gaza, Rishq added.
The United States, which has started a rapprochement with Damascus, wants Syrian authorities to help neutralize Hamas as an armed force.
Syria, which is seeking peace with Israel, resisted U.S. pressure several years ago to expel the Hamas leadership.
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