Ireland's government called on Israel today to withdraw a staffer at its Dublin embassy over the use of fake passports in the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai in January, according to Reuters. Dubai has accused Israel of being behind the killing of the Palestinian and has provided the names of over two dozen alleged members of a team it says tracked and killed him, using fraudulent British, Irish, French, German and Australian passports. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied any role in the assassination, prompting international indignation. Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said an investigation had shown that the eight Irish passports used by suspects in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh were forgeries. Australia and Britain have also ordered the expulsion of Israeli diplomats over fake passports used by the killers to travel to and from Dubai. German prosecutors said at the weekend they were seeking the extradition of a suspected Israeli agent who was arrested in Poland in early June for passport fraud in the same case. Martin said they discovered no additional evidence linking the Irish passports to Israel. Those responsible for the forgery of the Irish passports sought to replicate potential valid Irish passport information, with six of the eight fake passports using the numbers of existing Irish passport holders, Martin said. The other two Irish passports used numbers conforming to Irish passport number format, although valid passports carrying these numbers were never actually issued, he said. -- SPA
