The police chief of Dubai insists Canada has arrested a Mossad operative who helped murder Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al Mabhouh in January, despite Ottawa’s denials.
Lt.-Gen. Dahi KhalfanTamim told The Globe and Mail on Tuesday in a telephone interview, “A senior Canadian security official here told me in July that they have made an arrest of one of the suspects.
“The person informed me then that this information was not to be released in the media and was only for the police,” he continued. “Since then we have not heard any more information and I don’t understand the secrecy.”
Canadian officials have categorically denied Tamim’s claim, and some have implied that Dubai seeks to embarrass Ottawa over an airport rights dispute between the two countries. Dubai has long sought to expand the number of direct flights to Canadian airports; this month the UAE suddenly choked off Ottawa’s access to the “Camp Mirage” air strip and logistics base that allowed Canadian troops to supply its NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The suspects Tamim referred to were a group of assassins who allegedly murdered a top Hamas weapons procurer who had traveled to Dubai, apparently on his way to Iran.
Mabhouh was the terrorist responsible for ensuring that Iranian weapons shipments arrived safely in Gaza, until he was found dead in his room in Dubai’s posh Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel on January 19. He was one of the founders of the Izz a-din al-Qassam military wing of Hamas, and was responsible for the murder of two IDF soldiers in 1989.
More than 30 unidentified agents were allegedly involved in the operation, which was carried out under aliases with faked identities using real passports from various countries gleaned from unsuspecting people living in Israel. In concert with standard policy, the State of Israel and the Mossad have refused to comment on whether the international spy agency had any involvement in the case.