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29 January 2010
The Palestinian militant group Hamas claim Israeli intelligence agents have targeted a top Palestinian militant in the United Arab Emirates.
Hamas has accused Israel of assassinating one of its senior commanders. Speaking in Damascus, Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk said the incident occurred last week in the Persian Gulf city state of Dubai.
He said agents of Israel's Mossad spy agency killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a founder of the Hamas military wing who played a leading role in the Palestinian uprising in the 1980s. Hamas gave no details of how he was killed, but Palestinian sources say he lived in Syria and was passing through Dubai, where he was found dead in his hotel room.
In Gaza, his brother Hussein gave this account.
He said his brother was neutralized with a taser gun and then strangled to death. Another report said he was poisoned.
Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq said al-Mabhouh masterminded the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989.
He said that from his base in Syria, al-Mabhouh assisted the Hamas military wing in Palestine.
On Friday, some 2,000 people attended the 50-year-old commander's funeral at a Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus.
There was no comment on the alleged assassination from Israel, which typically refuses to discuss any operations attributed to the Mossad. Hamas promised revenge for what it described as a "Zionist crime," saying it would "retaliate at the appropriate time and place."
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