More and more international powers are pulling up the Isareli spy agency for the bungled killing of a Hamas leader last month

Mossad mess get worse

Last night, Dubai police were searching for another six people alleged to have been involved in the sensational assassination of top Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhoub last month.

Six of the 11 suspects already identified by police were carrying fake British passports, a disclosure which has sparked a diplomatic crisis between the two countries. The other suspects were in possession of fake passports from Ireland, France and Germany.

In Britain

Even as British prime minister Gordon Brown ordered an investigation into the use of British passports, the Foreign Office called in Israel's ambassador to ask whether Israel was behind the killing.

Britain is believed to be considering its intelligence-sharing agreement with Israel if Mossad agents are proved to have stolen the identities of the British passport holders.

Mabhouah, a senior Hamas operative who co-ordinated the flow of arms from Iran to Hamas in the Gaza strip, was found dead in Dubai's Al Bustan hotel on January 20. At first authorities believed he had died of natural causes, but subsequent autopsy tests indicated he had been either poisoned or suffocated.

On the run:u00a0A combo of pictures of the 11 suspects in the assassination. They are (from left, first row) Peter Elvinger from France, Stephen Daniel Hodes from Britain, Melvyn Adam Mildine from Britain and Jonathan Louis Graham from Britain. (From left, second row) Evan Dennings from Ireland, Michael Lawrence Barney from Britain, Paul John Keeley from Britain, Kevin Daveron from Ireland and (bottom row) Gail Folliard from Ireland, Michael Bodenheimer from Germany and James Leonard Clarke from Britain. Pic/AFP

Earlier goof up

Mossad has used the forged and stolen passports of several foreign countries to carry out hits in the past, including a bungled assassination attempt on the Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, in 1997, when forged Canadian passports were seized.

The suspects' pictures and names were released by Dubai police and published in Dubai newspapers, along with CCTV footage showing their whereabouts in the run-up to the killing of Mabhouah, a founder of the militant group's armed wing.

France and Germany have said they were unable to verify the identities of the French and German passport-holders named in Dubai. Ireland said the three Irish passports appeared to be forgeries rather than stolen identities even as Israel has refused to allegations of its involvement.

Meanwhile, the Times newspaper of London has reported that Mossad was stepping up covert operations in the Middle East.

Dubai's police chief Dhahi Khalfan, is on record as saying, "We have no doubt that it was 11 people 11 people holding these passports, and we regret that they used the travel documents of friendly countries.

He described the operation as a "rapid and professional hit." A former Mossad field agent said elements of the Dubai killing bore a striking resemblance to past operations.

The Hamas operative was reportedly strangled after receiving an electric shock. The operation had all the gory ingredients of a chilling John le Carre spy novel.

The murder group had left Dubai in the hours following the assassination, presenting the media surveillance camera footage of the team arriving and departing and their movements in the hotel.

They spent only 24 hours in Dubai, and the killers used no weapons, credit cards or local phone lines during their stay.

The hit squad injected Mabhouah with a drug that induced a heart attack, photographed all the documents in his briefcase, and left a 'do not disturb' sign on the door.

Revenge

Hamas, the Palestinian group that rules the Gaza strip has vowed revenge, accusing Israel of killing 50-year old Mabhouah. Its members said the 50-year old operative, who was based in Damascus, wasu00a0 on a visit to Dubai to buy weapons for the militant group's armed wing, of which he was a founder.

Mabhouah was born in northern Gaza and confessed to his involvement in the 1989 killings of two captured Israeli soldiers in a video aired more than two weeks after his death.

According to Khalfan, Mabhouah entered the UAE, of which Dubai is a member, a day before his death using a passport that did not bear his family name. He was then tracked by his killers, who had reserved a room across the hall from his in the hotel.

In Israel

While Israeli authorities remained tight-lipped over the issue, Israeli newspapers have hailed the killing, with the right-wing Jerusalem Post calling it "another blow to the axis of evil".

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