Dubai Police Chief Calls For Arrest of Mossad Head

February 19, 2010 (LPAC)—On Thursday, Dubai's police chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim called for Interpol to issue a red notice against the head of the Mossad as a killer, in case the Mossad is proved to be behind the murder of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Tamim told the English-language Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National that Interpol had issued red notices for 11 suspects wanted in the killing of al-Mabhouh, 50, who was found dead in his hotel room Jan. 20. A red notice requests that the suspects be arrested pending extradition.

Two suspects, both Palestinians, are already in Dubai custody and were identified Thursday by a Hamas spokesman and an Israeli newspaper as operatives for the Palestinian political group Fatah. "Our investigations reveal that Mossad is involved in the murder of al-Mabhouh," Tamim told the newspaper. "It is 99% if not 100% [certain] that Mossad is standing behind the murder." The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has identified the two Palestinian suspects as former Gaza residents working for a company owned by a top confidant to the leader of Fatah, the Palestinian faction run by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas. Ha'aretz described them as Ahmad Hasnin, a Palestinian intelligence operative, and Anwar Shekhaiber, an employee of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. The pair were arrested in Amman and extradited to Dubai after the killing.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Suhri told the BBC the men were members of the Palestinian Authority's security apparatus. They were originally from Gaza, he said, but fled the Strip three years ago when Hamas took over the territory.

On the other hand, Palestinian Authority police spokesman General Adnan al-Dameeri played down Hamas's accusations that the two Palestinians who have been arrested in Dubai were working for the Palestinian Authority security forces.

Al-Dameeri told Asharq Al-Awsat, "We have complete information about their identities, and I say to you, they work for the security apparatus of Hamas, and one of them who holds the rank of major traveled to work in Sharjah [in the UAE]; as for how he obtained this rank and why he traveled to Sharjah, it is up to Hamas to answer." General al-Dameeri also said that he "challenges them [Hamas] to declare their names," and he called on the Hamas leadership to "draw lessons from this incident."

Other details have emerged in the case: The Guardian learned that a key Hamas security official is under arrest in Syria on suspicion of having helped the assassins identify Mabhouh as their target. Authorities in Vienna have begun an investigation into whether Austria was used as a logistical hub for the operation. Seven of the mobile phones used by the killers had Austrian sim cards.