Dubai identifies suspects in Hamas leader's murder

Jan 29, 2010, 16:49 GMT

Dubai/Damascus - Dubai police have identified the suspects in the killing in the Gulf emirate of a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas, Dubai government media office said on Friday.

A Dubai security source said that the suspects were members of a 'criminal gang' that tracked Mahmoud al-Mabhouh before he entered the country.

The source added that most of the suspects have European passports.

Earlier on Friday, the Palestinian Islamist group announced that al-Mabhouh was killed in Dubai on January 20.

'They left behind evidence at the scene of the crime which will help in tracking them down as soon as possible,' said the source.

Al-Mabhouh, full name Mahmoud Abdul-Raouf Hassan, was found dead in a Dubai hotel one day after he entered the country, Dubai police said.

Dubai police said that current investigations are in cooperation with the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), as the suspects had left the United Arab Emirates before the announcement of the murder.

Hamas member Ezzat al-Rishq accused Israel of killing al-Mabhouh, saying that the movement's armed al-Qassam Brigades will respond to this 'criminal assassination' in the right place and time.

Covered by Hamas green flag, al-Mabhouh was buried on Friday afternoon at al-Shuhadaa, or Martyrs, cemetery in the Yarmouk refugee camp, near Damascus.

Thousands of mourners attended the funeral, during which Hamas' political leader Khaled Meshaal vowed to avenge al-Mabhouh's death from Israel.

'Hamas is investigating the circumstances of the crime with the concerned authorities in the UAE,' al-Rishq told the German Press Agency dpa in Syria, adding that Dubai was only a transit station for al-Mabhouh.

Hamas member Talal Nassar was quoted by Gulf News on its website as saying that al-Mabhouh had been 'poisoned and electrocuted in his hotel room in Dubai.' He did not elaborate.

Al-Rishq refused to reveal where al-Mabhouh was heading. He said that al-Mabhouh's body arrived in Damascus late on Thursday, and the details about his death will be revealed later for security reasons.

Al-Mabhouh, who was 50 years old, was one of the founders of the al-Qassam Brigades and had been living in Syria since the late 1980s, along with several of the group's main figures, including Meshaal and al-Rishq.

Syria and Iran are the main backers of Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.