UK to expel Mossad operative over Dubai terror case

The United Kingdom will expel a senior Israeli diplomat, a Mossad operative, over the use of fake British passports in the terrorist operation against a Hamas commander in Dubai.

Citing Foreign Office sources, Times Online reported Tuesday that Foreign Secretary David Miliband is due to announce the expulsion of the diplomat in a statement to Parliament later today.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman however refused to comment on the reports.

Miliband had earlier called on Israel to provide “full cooperation” to an international investigation into the use of fake passports by the killers of Hamas commander Mahmud al-Mabhuh, who was drugged and suffocated in his hotel room in Dubai on January 19.

Tel Aviv’s spy agency Mossad is widely reported to have masterminded the assassination. Israeli officials have not denied involvement in the terrorist operation. Moreover, Israeli media have boasted Mossad’s expert operational planning in the terror of al-Mabhuh and many prior operations.

Eleven suspects, carrying European passports, included twelve British, six Irish, four French, three Australinans and a German, believed to have been Mossad agents carrying fake European documents, were involved in the terror act, according to Dubai police.

Israeli and European media have reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had authorized the terror operation against the Hamas commander in a meeting with Mossad’s chief Mier Dagan in early January in Tel Aviv.