DUBAI: Dubai police have named five new suspects in the killing of a senior Hamas insurgent at a luxury hotel in the Gulf emirate, bringing the total number to 32, Al-Arabiya news channel reported on Friday.
Police said two of the new suspects in Mahmud Al-Mabhuh’s assassination in January held French passports, another two traveled on British passports, and the other, a woman, had an Australian passport, the Dubai-based channel said.
It gave the names in Arabic.
International police agency Interpol has already issued arrest notices for 27 suspects wanted by Dubai in connection with the killing of Mabhuh, a founder of the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, who was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on January 20.
The assassination has caused diplomatic tension over the alleged falsification of European and Australian passports by Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
London in March kicked out an Israeli diplomat citing "compelling reasons" to believe that Israel was responsible for the misuse of British passports.
The Dubai police had said 12 people linked to the hit used cloned British passports, three had French travel documents, six carried Irish passports and one used a German identity.
Three Australian passports were also used in the operation, while two Palestinians were arrested in Jordan and extradited to Dubai over connections to the killing, according to police.
Dubai police Chief General Dahi Khalfan has said Mabhuh was drugged and then suffocated in his hotel room, while Hamas has blamed the killing entirely on Israel and vowed revenge.
The emirate’s security service showed surveillance video footage from Mabhuh’s hotel detailing the movements of the alleged hit squad.
