Six Britons who were named as the suspected assassins of Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai have told U.K. newspapers that their identities were stolen and they now fear for their lives.
"I'm not exactly spy material," one of the men, Michael Lawrence Barney said, explaining that he had undergone quadruple bypass surgery.
The 54-year-old father of three left his home in East London in the 1970s to work on an Israeli kibbutz.
"I checked to see where my passport was straight away, but it was still there. I was shocked. My picture is being beamed around the world and I'm being called a terrorist," Barney said, according to the Daily Mail newspaper.
Israel's foreign minister said on Wednesday the use of the identities of foreign-born Israelis by a hit squad did not prove that the Mossad spy agency had assassinated Mabhouh.
"There is no reason to think that it was the Israeli Mossad, and not some other intelligence service or country up to some mischief," Avigdor Lieberman, asked about the operation and alleged passport subterfuge, told Army Radio.
But Lieberman did not deny outright Israeli involvement in the killing of Hamas' Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel last month, saying Israel has a "policy of ambiguity" on intelligence matters and there was no proof it was behind the assassination.
In another development, Dubai police said Monday they arrested two Palestinian citizens, including an officer in the Palestinian Authority, suspected of involvement in the assassination, according to the al-Jazeerah news service.
By: Brant
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