Authorities suspect passport forgery as Dubai orders hit squad manhunt

DUBAI police have appealed for an international manhunt after releasing names and photographs of an alleged 11-member European hit squad – including six with British passports and three with Irish – accused of killing a Hamas commander last month.

The case as presented by Dubai authorities describes detailed planning that included suspects taking the same lift as Mahmoud al-Mabhouh before he was killed in an ambush-style attack in a luxury hotel room that took no more than ten minutes.

However, questions emerged last night about the list of alleged suspects.

Dubai police identified Michael Barney, James Clarke, Jonathan Graham, Paul Keeley, Stephen Hodes and Melvyn Mildiner as British suspects.

Gail Folliard, Evan Dennings and Kevin Daveron were named as Irish suspects, and Peter Elvinger, of France, and Michael Bodenheimer, of Germany, were also named as suspects.

But Irish authorities said the three alleged Irish citizens do not exist. In Germany, officials said the passport number given for the lone German suspect was incomplete or wrong.

Others also challenged the narrative presented by Dubai authorities, including why such an apparently well-planned operation would forget about the country's wide-ranging security cameras. Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel's Mossad secret service of masterminding the killing and has vowed revenge.

Al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas' military wings, had been wanted by Israel for his role in the 1989 kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers on leave – something acknowledged by Hamas last month.

Days after his body was found on 20 January, Israeli officials also accused al-Mabhouh of helping smuggle rockets into the Gaza Strip.

Melvyn Adam Mildiner, 31, one of the men identified by the Dubai police as a suspect, was shocked when contacted in Israel.

Mildiner, who said he holds a British and an Israeli passport, confirmed the name and the passport number issued by Dubai officials matched his but said the date of birth was incorrect.

He said he did not know how anybody obtained his UK passport, which was issued in 2001 and never reported lost.

Britain's Foreign Office said that authorities were aware the "holders of six British passports have been named" as suspects but added authorities believe the passports used were fraudulent.

Dubai officials said they would seek assistance from Interpol and press individual nations to hunt down the suspects.

Attorney general Essam al-Hemaydan said yesterday that international arrest warrants have been issued.

The account presented on Monday by Dubai's police chief Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim included surveillance video clips from the suspects' airport arrivals to their hasty departures to Europe and Asia before al-Mabhouh's body was found in Room 230 at the Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel near Dubai's international airport.

Lt Gen Tamim said the suspects arrived in Dubai at different times and tailed al-Mabhouh from the moment of his arrival in Dubai to when he entered his hotel room.

Top Hamas figures have denied reports al-Mabhouh was en route to Iran, a major Hamas backer. However, the group has not given clear reasons for his presence in Dubai.