New suspects include 3 Australians

Dubai: Fifteen new suspects in the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai have been named by Dubai Police, including three Australians, bringing the total number of suspects to 26.

It took a squad of at least 26 people to assassinate Hamas official Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in Dubai last month, most of whom were carrying passports from Western European states, Dubai Police revealed yesterday.

Click here to know how the suspects are connected (pdf)

The new information has revealed the involvement of three Australian passport holders for the first time.

A newly released video also reveals that one of the squad members, an Irish passport-holding blonde woman named Anna Shauan Clasby, withdrew before playing her planned part in the operation. The police did not say whether they knew the reason why she pulled out.

Credit cards

The police also revealed the numbers of 17 credit cards that were used preceding the operation, as well as by which bank some of them were issued.

Amongst the new suspects were holders of six British documents, three Irish, three French and three Australian.

According to Dubai Police, European governments have authenticated the passports used by all suspects in the case.

While EU states have maintained that most of the passports used were forged, Dubai Police has said that 23 of the 26 passports were real with false identities. Information provided by the police indicates that the three Australian passports used were forged.

So far, media reports in Germany have claimed that the sole German passport used in the operation was real.

Dubai Police chief Lieutenant General Dahi Khal-fan Tamim earlier told reporters that another two Palestinian residents of the UAE are being held in connection to the assassination. The two had fled to Jordan and were later extradited. Hamas and rival Fatah have both claimed that the two detainees are members of the other faction.

Meanwhile, Britain and Ireland were yesterday contacting the holders of passports newly suspected of being used by the hit squad as London said it expected "full Israeli cooperation."

General Tamim has said he is almost certain that Israeli secret service Mossad was behind the death of Al Mabhouh.

"We can confirm that six more UK passports have been identified, we will seek to make contact with these individuals and offer consular assistance as we have [done in the case of] the previous individuals," the Foreign Office in London said. "The foreign secretary and others have made clear we expect full Israeli co-operation."

A spokesman for the Irish foreign ministry said six of the 26 passports so far identified were Irish and all the genuine passport holders whose passport numbers had been used had been contacted.

Credit card data

Dubai Police have released credit card details used by 17 of the suspects to pay for hotels and tickets.

A total of 13 credit cards used were from the USA-based Meta Bank. When contacted by Gulf News, the bank declined to comment on the issue. Another two cards were from IDT Finance — Gibraltar (UK), while one was from the
Nationwide building society (UK) and one other was from DZ Bank AG (Germany).

The police also released the 17 credit card numbers and the names of the suspects who used these. The suspects’ names are: Eric Rassinerux, David Lapierre, Mark Sklar, Stephen Drake, Adam Korman, Graham Jonathan Louis, Paul John Keeley, James Leonard Clarke, Stephen Daniel Hodes, Daniel Schnur, Philip Carr, Roy Cannon, Joshua Daniel Bruce, Gale Folliard, Ana Shauan Clasby.

Fifteen of the cards used were Mastercard, while the other two were Visa.
 

British passport holders:
Daniel Marc Schnur, Gabriella Barney, Roy Allan Cannon, Stephen Keith Drake, Mark Sklur and Philip Carr.

Irish passport holders:
Ivy Brinton, Anna Shuana Clasby and Chester Halvey

French passport holders:
David Bernard LaPierre, Melenie Heard and Eric Rassineux

Australian passport holders:
Joshua Daniel Bruce, Nicole Sandra McCabe and Adam Korman

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