Mahmoud al Mabhouh holds a picture of his son, a senior Hamas commander killed in Dubai, at his family home in Gaza yesterday - MOHAMMED SALEM
A senior member of the Palestinian militant group Hamas has been found murdered in a Dubai hotel. Hamas accused agents from Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence service, of assassinating Mahmoud al Mabhouh, a founder of their military wing, the Ezzedeen al Qassam Brigades.
The Israeli government has not commented on the claims. Dubai Police confirmed that the body of al Mabhouh, 50, was found on January 20, a day after he entered the country from an unnamed Arab state. A statement said the suspects were mostly European passport holders and members of an "experienced criminal gang" who had been monitoring al Mabhouh's movements. The suspects fled the country before al Mabhouh's body was found in a room in a hotel, which police sources last night identified as Al Bustan Rotana in Al Garhoud.
Dubai Police are co-ordinating with Interpol on the case in an attempt to track down the killers. Hotel staff, speaking anonymously, confirmed that a Palestinian man had been found dead on the premises "about a week ago". Speaking to Al Jazeera from the Gaza Strip, al Mabhouh's brother, Fayeq, said the family had been informed by Hamas and "people close to the UAE authorities" that his brother had been murdered.
"The information we have is that he was assassinated inside his hotel room," he said. "He first received an electrical shock on the head and then he was strangled." According to a Hamas statement issued from Damascus yesterday, al Mabhouh "died a martyr in Dubai on January 20, 2010 in suspect circumstances that require an inquiry in co-operation with the United Arab Emirates authorities". The statement vowed that Hamas would "retaliate for this Zionist crime at the appropriate moment".
Ahmed Yousef, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, said last night that the killing showed that Israel "does not respect international law. It does not respect the sovereignty of other states. The country wants to show its hands can reach anywhere without being held accountable." Al Mabhouh was born in the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza and was reportedly a key military planner in Hamas. Some sources suggest that he was a pivotal figure in attempts to procure weapons for Gaza.
Hamas said he had been involved in the capture and subsequent killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989, when he was exiled. Since then he had been based in Damascus, where he was reportedly close to the exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. Al Mabhouh spent his life in and out of Israeli detention and was one of the state's most wanted men. The Israeli army destroyed the al Mabhouh family house in Gaza by way of retaliation, a common form of punishment by Israel.
On Thursday, his body was flown to Syria and yesterday a funeral was held in Al Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus. Mr Meshaal told thousands of Palestinians who turned out to mourn al Mabhouh that the "resistance will go on" and described him 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." Over the years a number of Hamas leaders have been killed in Israeli assassinations, or what Israel calls "targeted killings".
The founder of Hamas, Ahmed Yassin, a quadriplegic, was killed in Gaza when two missiles struck his wheelchair as he returned from morning prayers in 2004. A month later, Abdel Aziz Rantissi, who succeeded him, was killed in a similar attack. Since then, the Hamas leadership has divided responsibilities between those within the occupied Palestinian territories and those in exile. Overall leadership now rests with Mr Meshaal, who, in 1997, was himself the target of an unsuccessful Israeli assassination attempt in Jordan.
Al Mabhouh's assassination comes as a fragile truce is holding in and around Gaza. Hamas has been largely successful in ending the rocket fire against Israel, wary of a repeat of Israel's fierce attacks on the impoverished strip last year. * Additional reporting by Eugene Harnan
CCTV footage: The assassination of Mahmoud al Mabhouh in Dubai
Dubai murder: fake identities, disguised faces and a clinical assassination
CCTV appears to show sophisticated operation behind killing of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh
Images released by the authorities in Dubai showing seven of the 11 suspects wanted in connection with the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Photograph: AP
The Guardian - As soon as Mahmoud al-Mabhouh walked out into the foyer of DubaiInternational Airport at 3.17pm, the foreign assassins had latched on to his tail.
Within five hours, the Palestinian militant would be dead, the apparent victim of a sophisticated team of killers dispatched to end his life in what officials in Dubai have suggested is an extraordinary tale of modern-day espionage.
Mabhouh was so closely shadowed that, within seconds of passing immigration control, he was forced to manoeuvre his baggage trolley around one of his would-be assassins, a man in a white baseball cap and T-shirt talking casually on a mobile phone.
Tonight Dubai confirmed it had instigated an international manhunt after law enforcement officials issued formal arrest warrants for 11 individuals accused of the "premeditated murder" of Mabhouh, 49, a senior figure from the militant group Hamas, in a case that could have a profound impact on Middle East diplomacy.
Hamas has blamed the Israeli foreign intelligence agency the Mossad for the killing and reports emerged tonight that at least three of the European identities used by the killers were stolen from Britons living in Israel. Israel has refused to comment on the allegations.
Dubai police said they could not rule out Israel's involvement, and hinted at the involvement of spies. "If the law of the jungle is the system for some countries, in the UAE it is rule of law that governs us, and if leaders of some countries give orders to their intelligence services to kill, this practice is rejected and is a crime in our laws, religion and Islamic traditions," said Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, Dubai's chief of police.
The allegations were met with some scepticism in Israel, where at least one former high-ranking Mossad official, Rami Yigal, said the operation did not "look professional".
According to the detailed but unverified account given on Monday by Dubai police, the killers began arriving in Dubai shortly after midnight on 19 January. Their movement across the city was captured on CCTV footage, much of it released by the Dubai authorities, along with hotel records and flight data they said supports their allegations.
When Mabhouh arrived in Dubai 15 hours later, police believe his assassins, who were using forged European identities, tracked him to room 230 of the luxury Al-Bustan Rotana hotel, in the heart of the city, killed him, and then departed the country. The entire operation was completed in just 19 hours, they said.
The first two suspected assassins used the names Michael Bodenheimer and James Clarke, and respectively carried German and British passports. They were followed 30 minutes later by the only female member, Gail Folliard, and Kevin Daveron. Both carried Irish passports and arrived on a flight from Paris.
The pair were said to have taken separate taxis to the same hotel, in what appears to have been the first in a series of repeated, meticulous decoys and counter-espionage techniques. Throughout their 19 hours in the emirate, members of the gang used cash rather than credit cards for their transactions and almost continuously changed their identities, switching outfits and wearing wigs and glasses as disguises, Dubai police said.
The CCTV footage showed Daveron appeared to have undergone the most extreme transformation, disappearing from the view of a CCTV camera in a hotel lobby as a bald man in a suit, before reappearing with thick black hair and glasses.
Dubai police said the team used international calls to communicate and "special communication devices" to relay encrypted messages. Austria was identified as a possible "command centre" by police, who claimed to have tracked a series of calls to the country from numbers used by the assassins.
By the time Mabhouh arrived in Dubai, all 11 members of the team – including the alleged ringleader, a French passport holder who used the name Peter Elvinger – were in the country and preparing for his murder, police said. They included a man using an Irish passport and the name Evan Dennings, as well as six other British passport holders; Paul Keeley, Stephen Hodes, Melvyn Mildiner, Jonathan Graham, James Clarke and Michael Barney.
Two Palestinians believed to have been involved in the operation are in UAE custody after being handed over by Jordan.
It is still not known why Mabhouh, who was involved in killing two Israeli soldiers during the first Palestinian uprising in 1989 and, according to Hamas, was still active in the Palestinian militant group, travelled to Dubai. Senior Hamas figures have denied reports that the commander was en route to Iran, which is a major Hamas backer.
However, if the evidence presented by Dubai police is believed, Mabhouh's fate was sealed the moment he touched down on UAE territory. After his assassins made an initial sighting at the airport, Dubai police said he was followed to the taxi rank and, later, to the Al-Bustan Rotana hotel.
Footage from the reception desk showed Mabhouh checking in at 3.25pm, as two individuals in tennis outfits – identified by Dubai police as "surveillance" operatives – stood nearby.
As a member of staff showed Mabhouh to his room, the assassins dressed as tennis players quickly followed him into the elevator, in what police said was an attempt to note down his room number. Half an hour later, in another part of the city, it was claimed that Elvinger called Al-Bustan Rotana to book room 237 – which was opposite Mabhouh's room.
Mabhouh returned to his room from a walk around the city at around 8.30pm. He is thought to have been suffocated. Dubai police suggested four assassins may have entered his room while he was out and ambushed him on his return.
Dubai police said all 11 alleged killers flew out of the emirate shortly after. One of the final clips showed Elvinger and Folliard casually leaving the hotel at 8:52pm. She was wearing a stripy sunhat, while his head was hidden beneath a white trilby.
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