Interpol published wanted notices and images on Thursday of 11 suspected hit squad members involved in the slaying of senior Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month.
Interpol said it had placed the alleged hit squad members on its most-wanted list to prevent them from traveling on forged passports.
The international police organization acknowledged in its notice it “does not believe that we know the true identities of these wanted persons.”
Interpol Secretary-General, Ronald K. Noble, urged police forces around the world to “focus on the pictures of the suspects... in deciding who to detain, question and apprehend.”
“Since Interpol has reason to believe that the suspects linked to this murder have stolen the identities of real people, the red notices specify that the names used were aliases used to commit murder,” the announcement said.
Earlier, Dubai Police chief Lt.-Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim said he was “99 percent, if not 100%” certain that the Mossad was behind Mabhouh’s death.
“Our investigations reveal that Mossad is involved in the murder of al-Mabhouh,” Tamim was quoted as saying in The National newspaper, which is owned by the Abu Dhabi government.
He told another local paper, the Dubai-based Gulf News, “All elements strongly indicate the involvement of the Mossad.”
Dubai’s police chief directly accused Israel of the killing, and called on Interpol to seek the arrest of Mossad chief Meir Dagan, urging it to issue a “red notice against the head of Mossad.”
A UAE official was quoted by the Associated Press as saying on Thursday that at least 18 people – including two women – were now suspected in what Dubai police have described as a highly coordinated operation to kill Mabhouh.
The investigation has now widened to the United States. The alleged killers used fraudulent passports to open five credit card accounts through US-based banks, said an official who has close knowledge of the investigation. The official gave no additional details.
Meanwhile, a senior Hamas source told the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper that two Palestinians arrested in Jordan and deported to Dubai on suspicion of aiding the assassins were members of Palestinian Authority security forces.
According to some reports, one of the Palestinian suspects has confessed to his role in the killing.
Al-Hayat named Anwar S., a PA intelligence officer, and Ahmed H., a PA security officer, as the suspects. Other reports later named the men as Anwar Shahaibar and Ahmed Hassnein.
Police in Dubai now believe members of the hit squad visited the Gulf emirate twice before January’s assassination, according to reports in the Arab press. The reports also said Mabhouh had been trailed in the past by agents on a flight to China.
Dubai’s police chief said Wednesday that Mabhouh “was transiting in Dubai before traveling to China and did not meet anyone in the emirate. He just went shopping and returned to his hotel, where the crime took place.”