Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday said that there was no proof Israel's Mossad spy agency was behind the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai last month, after it emerged that some members of the hit squad involved in the killing had used the identities of foreign-born Israelis.
 
Lieberman did not deny outright Israeli involvement in the killing of Hamas's Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel, saying only that Israel has a "policy of ambiguity" on intelligence matters and there was no proof it was behind the assassination.
 
"There is no reason to think that it was the Israeli Mossad, and not some other intelligence service or country up to some mischief," Lieberman said when asked about the operation and the identity-theft. 
 
Men with the same names as seven of the 11 suspects whose European passport photos were distributed by Dubai this week reside in the Zionist entity, and those reached by reporters insisted their identities had been stolen and noted the pictures were not a match.
 
Six of the men are Britons who immigrated to the Zionist entity. The seventh is an American Israeli, whose name Dubai said was on a German passport used by one of the assassins.
 
As the mystery over suspects' identities deepened, Britain and Ireland said they believed the British and Irish passports used by the alleged killers were forged.  
 
In the radio interview, Lieberman shrugged off any prospect of diplomatic problems with Britain over suspicions a Mossad team had used counterfeit British passports.
 
"I think Britain recognizes that Israel is a responsible country and that our security activity is conducted according to very clear, cautious and responsible rules of the game. Therefore we have no cause for concern," he said.
 
As the Israelis struggled to come to terms with their newfound fame as international "assassins," the Israeli press skewered the operation that it has widely laid at the feet of the storied Mossad. "A successful operation? Not so sure," read a headline in the Israeli mass-selling Yediot Aharonot daily.
 
"Cracks are appearing more and more in this operation which at first looked like a grand success."
 
Wrote Maariv: "Whoever assassinated senior Hamas figure Mahmud al-Mabhouh is in trouble... The intelligence was of high quality, the implementation was polished, the assassins entered and left Dubai safely, everything went like clockwork. Unfortunately, so did the security cameras."
 
A columnist in the left-leaning Haaretz called for the resignation of Mossad chief Meir Dagan over the affair and one in the right-wing Israel Hayom questioned the wisdom of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu having extended Dagan's mandate to a fifth year.
 
Hit squads dispatched by Mossad have used foreign passports in the past, notably in 1997 when agents entered Jordan on Canadian passports and bungled an attempt to kill Hamas politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal with poison.
 
In 1987, Britain protested to Israel about what London called the misuse by Israeli authorities of forged British passports and said it received assurances steps had been taken to prevent future occurrences.
 
DUBAI NARROWS DOWN SIX MORE SUSPECTS
Dubai police have meanwhile narrowed down another six suspects in addition to the 11 European passport-holders named earlier this week, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
 
The names of the additional six have yet to be released and the actual identities of the other 11 suspects are still in question.
 
Dubai Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim announced on Monday that senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was murdered by an 11-member hit squad of mercenaries carrying European passports.
 
Tamim said that arrest warrants would be issued soon and while he did not accuse Israel directly, he did say it was possible that "leaders of certain countries gave orders to their intelligence agents."
 
"We do not rule out Mossad, but when we arrest those suspects we will know who masterminded it. [We have not] issued arrest warrants yet, but will do so soon," he told a press conference on Monday.
 
Two Palestinians have already been arrested in connection to the assassination.
 
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