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Hamas Commander Killed in Dubai

Dubai: Senior Hamas Commander Mahmoud Al Mabhouh was found dead in a Dubai hotel on January 20, three days after his arrival here, a senior police official said on Friday. It was not immediately clear who killed him.

Al Mabhouh had entered the UAE under a different name and security officials learnt of his true identity after his death, said the official. He said the killers could also have entered the country using different identities.

The police official, who did not wish to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the 50-year old Hamas commander’s body was found in a Deira hotel room by an employee.

The victim’s body bore torture marks and his legs were tied with electric wires, according to the police official. It appeared that he was smothered to death using a pillow which was held to his nose, the source said.

UAE security agents and police officials said they had information to suggest that four men wearing masks had entered the victim’s room four days before the alleged killing took place.

Earlier, Hamas spokesman Izzat Al Rishq, speaking to Reuters in Damascus, said Al Mabhouh had been assassinated in Dubai.

Rishq said Al Mabhouh was an “important” member of Izz Deen Al Qassam brigades, Hamas’s military wing named after a Syrian religious leader who fought British colonial forces in Palestine in the 1930s.

Mabhouh had been living in Syria since 1989 and his funeral will take place later today.

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