Al Mabhouh's killers travelled to Dubai on fake passports

ABU DHABI and DUBAI // Nine of the 11 people wanted for the murder of a Hamas leader in Dubai last month used false passports, British and Irish officials said yesterday. A foreign office spokesman in London said: "We are aware that the holders of six British passports have been named in this case. We believe the passports used were fraudulent."

In Dublin, a spokesman for the department of foreign affairs said: "We are unable to identify any of those three individuals as being genuine Irish citizens. Ireland has issued no passports in those names." One of the suspects was named by Dubai police on Monday as Melvyn Adam Mildiner. Yesterday Mr Mildiner, a British-born computer specialist who lives in Israel, said he had never been to Dubai and still had his passport. He added: "I'm looking into what I can do to try to sort things out and clear my name. I don't know how this happened or who chose my name or why."

Veteran Hamas leader Mahmoud al Mabhouh was killed in his Dubai hotel room on the evening of January 20. On Monday, naming the 11 suspects and showing video surveillance footage of them, Dubai police said the gang had all left Dubai within hours of the assassination. The Dubai Police chief, Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, said yesterday that the forged documents probably meant that police were tracking the correct suspects. However, a leading intelligence analyst told The National that the chances of catching the killers were "zero to nil". newsdesk@thenational.ae