DUBAI – Dubai has widened its search for the killers of Hamas top official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, it emerged on Wednesday, with officials confirming that at least six of the Hamas commander's assassins remain unaccounted for. Police in Dubai have issued international arrest warrants for 11 suspects in the case, but now believe the team behind the murder numbered at least 17. The six unknown killers include a second woman, who was part of the final surveillance team in the lobby of al-Mabhouh's Dubai hotel as the murder took place on the evening of January 19. The woman arrived at the hotel at 18.41 dressed as a tourist in a large summer hat. She was accompanied by a large man in a Panama hat and beard. Another unknown man was part of the core team of seven that carried out the killing in room 230 of the luxury al-Bustan Rotana hotel. Within minutes of the murder taking place at around, the man is seen leaving the hotel with the woman named as Gail Folliard, who was carrying a fake Irish passport. Meanwhile, Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Wednesday that "there was no reason to think" the Mossad spy agency was behind the killing of a Hamas operative in Dubai, though he is refusing to confirm or deny involvement. The comments by Lieberman were the first from a senior Israeli official on the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel room last month. Israeli commentators are criticising the vaunted Mossad spy agency for sloppiness after revelations that the alleged assassins of a Hamas military commander in Dubai used identities of at least seven European-born Israelis. The sharp criticism of Mossad is making it tough for Israel to maintain its silence over the killing. The spy agency is being accused of exposing agents and invading citizens' privacy. Dubai police released names, photos, and passport numbers of 11 members of an alleged hit-squad that killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in his Dubai hotel room last month. Dubai says all carried European passports. But most of the identities appear fake and at least seven match real people in Israel who claim they are victims of identity theft. British authorities are investigating how the identities of UK citizens living in Israel may have been stolen and used in the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai, the London-based Times reported, citing unidentified officials at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. A senior British MP demanded yesterday Israel's ambassador should be summoned to the British Foreign Office to answer allegations of his country's involvement in the assassination of a Hamas commander by a hit squad using fake British and European passports. Two Britons whose passports were apparently used by the killers, have expressed shock at being caught up in the affair after they were named among 11 suspects identified by Dubai police. The UK's former Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell, who is also a member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said the British government should demand an urgent explanation. “If the Israeli government was party to behaviour of this kind it would be a serious violation of trust between nations,” he said. “If legitimate British passport holders were put at risk it would be a disgrace. Given the current speculation, the Israeli government has some explaining to do and the ambassador should be summoned to the Foreign Office to do so in double-quick time.”
