Fifteen new suspects have been linked to the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai that crime police have blamed on the Israeli secret service.
The names of the suspects—from Britain, Ireland, France, and Australia—were released alongside a warning that the United Arab Emirates would never allow outsiders “to settle scores on its territory.”
The disclosure puts at 26 the total number of those allegedly involved in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on Jan. 19.
All of those named police claimed as Mossad agents travelling on stolen passports.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in the killing of al-Mabhouh, who had played a key role in supplying arms to the militant group from Iran.
In a statement Wednesday, former Israeli Prime Minister Tzipi Livni—herself a former Mossad agent—praised the killing.
“The fact that a terrorist was killed—and it doesn’t matter if it was in Dubai or Gaza—is good news to those fighting terrorism,” she said.
Earlier this month, Dubai police released the names and passport photographs of 11 “agents with European passports”—6 from the U.K., 3 Irish, 1 French and 1 German.
All four countries have since said the documents were fraudulent.
The six newly-identified suspects who used U.K. passports were listed as Daniel Marc Schnur, Gabriella Barney, Roy Allan Cannon, Stephen Keith Drake, Mark Sklur, and Philip Carr.
Those on Irish passports were Ivy Brinton, Anna Shuana Clasby, and Chester Halvey; on French passports, David Bernard LaPierre, Melenie Heard, and Eric Rassineux; and on Australian passports, Bruce Joshua Daniel, Nicole Sandra McCabe, and Adam Korman.
According to flight details released by the Dubai government, a number of the named suspects took part in reconnaissance operations in Dubai as early as March last year. The latest evidence points to an extremely well-organized plot.
A team from the U.K.’s Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) is in Dubai and working with detectives in piecing together the movements of the suspects.
A map detailing the movements of the alleged assassins on the day of the murder has been released by Dubai police.
“The suspects gathered in Dubai and dispersed to various locations before pairing up again in different teams and heading off to other destinations,” the statement said.
Officials have also discovered that the majority of the suspects had used credit cards issued by MetaBank, which is based in the United States.
“The cards were used to book hotel rooms and pay for air travel,” the statement added.
Dubai is no stranger to political assassinations. Early last year, a key enemy of the Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov was murdered in the emirate. Local authorities placed the blame on the country’s former deputy prime minister.
In a statement Wednesday, Dubai police said that the security of the public was “a red line that should not be crossed.”
“The United Arab Emirates will never tolerate the violation of its sovereignty or allow external forces to settle scores on its territory, no matter what their ideology is,” the statement added.
