Interpol joins international task force investigating Dubai assassination

Interpol said it would join an international task force investigating the Dubai assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh and issued "red notices" on Monday for 16 more suspects.

The notices, short of international arrest warrants but a request to Interpol members to detain the named people for extradition, bring to 27 the number of suspects that Interpol is assisting Dubai's search for connected to the Jan. 19 murder of Mr. Mabhouh. Notices for the first 11 were issued on Feb. 18.

"The creation of the task force and the publication of the new Red Notices came as investigative information provided by the authorities in Dubai bore out the international links and broad scope of the number of people involved," Interpol wrote in a statement.

The agency also explained why a first group of 11 suspects were identified before the additional 16. It said that the first 11 were a "core group alleged to have carried out the killing" while the second group of 16 "is believed to have aided and abetted the first team by closely watching, following and reporting Al Mabhouh's movements from the moment he landed at Dubai airport until his murder."

The red notices lend additional credibility to the case being assembled here, though it does little for the likelihood of the suspects being caught, some analysts say.

By pressing for the international alerts, the Dubai authorities are “throwing the ball in the court of the Western police forces,” says Riad Kahwaji, head of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis here.

One of the suspects on Interpol's list had not previously been named by Dubai. The name the suspect traveled under was Joshua Aaron Krycer. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports that a man of the same name was identified in a 2006 newsletter of the Zionist Federation of Australia as an Australian who had emigrated to Israel.

All 27 suspects entered the United Arab Emirates on forged British, Irish, French, German, and Australian passports. Several of the names match those of Israeli citizens who hold dual citizenship, thought those people appear to be victims of identity theft.

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