Mounting diplomatic fury over the killing of a top Hamas commander in a Dubai hotel reached Australia Thursday, with Israel's envoy summoned over the use of Australian passports by a suspected assassination squad. Dubai authorities have now identified 26 people suspected of involvement in the killing of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh. Fraudulent Australian passports were used by three of the 15 new suspects named, most of whom were Europeans. “Any state that has been complicit in use or abuse of the Australian passport system, let alone for the conduct of an assassination, is treating Australia with contempt and there will therefore be action by the Australian government in response,” said Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, without elaborating. Mabhouh was killed last month in his hotel room in what Dubai police say was almost certainly a hit by Israel's Mossad spy agency. Dubai police added 15 new names Wednesday to a list of suspects wanted over the killing. Six carried British passports, three held Irish documents, three were Australian, and three French, the Dubai government said in a statement. Among other suspects named earlier were 11 who traveled on fraudulent British, Irish, French and German passports to kill Mabhouh. Six were Britons living in Israel who deny involvement and say their identities were stolen. “Dubai investigators are not ruling out the possibility of involvement of other people in the murder,” a statement by Dubai authorities said. Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said Thursday his country was “angry” at the use of fraudulent Irish passports in the hit and that none of the suspects named were Irish citizens. “Whoever did this forged the passports. We are angry about that because it violates the integrity of our passport system and places at risk the security of our citizens,” he said. Australia's Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, who summoned Israel's ambassador in Canberra Yuval Rotem, said investigations were still under way, but the three Australians were also apparently innocent victims of identity theft. “I made it crystal clear to the ambassador that if the results of that investigation cause us to come to the conclusion that the abuse of Australian passports was in any way sponsored or condoned by Israeli officials, then Australia would not regard that as an act of a friend,” Smith said. French magistrates will also investigate how three fraudulent French passports came to be used in the assassination, France's foreign ministry said Thursday. Some of the other governments involved have summoned their Israeli envoys and the EU slammed the abuse of passports. Britain and Ireland were Wednesday contacting the holders of passports newly suspected of being used by the killers of a top Hamas figure in Dubai, as London said it expected “full Israeli cooperation.”
