DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Dubai police said Sunday forensic tests show a Hamas operative who was killed in his hotel room by an alleged Israeli hit squad was drugged with a fast-acting muscle relaxant and then suffocated with a pillow. The drug, called succinylcholine, is frequently used by doctors to administer a breathing tube or anesthesia. Dubai police said tests discovered the drug in the bloodstream of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas commander whose body was found in his room at a luxury Dubai hotel on Jan. 20. Dubai authorities have accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of being behind the killing. On Sunday, Dubai deputy police chief Maj. Gen. Khamis Mattar al-Mazeina told the Gulf News daily that succinylcholine can "cause immediate and temporary paralysis." He added that the forensic report confirms al-Mabhouh died of suffocation "using a pillow." Dubai police also said a third Palestinian suspect was in custody. The Gulf city-state's Authorities have linked at least 26 other suspects to the alleged hit squad that traveled to Dubai on fake European and Australian passports to stalk and kill al-Mabhouh. At least seven of the suspected killers share names with Israeli citizens, further fueling suspicions the Mossad was behind the hit. Israel, however, has maintained a policy of ambiguity on the killing, neither confirming or denying involvement. On Sunday, the country's trade minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, told Army Radio that while he had no idea who killed al-Mabhouh, the slaying shows Hamas that "none of their people are untouchable, they can all be reached."
