Israeli immigration officials copied British passports used by hit squad, ministers told

By Melissa Kite, Deputy Political Editor Published: 9:00PM GMT twenty February 2010

Suspects longed for in tie with the murdering of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, clockwise from tip left: Michael Lawrence Barney, James Leonard Clarke, Stephen Daniel Hodes, Paul John Keeley, Melvyn Adam Mildiner Photo: AP

The 6 British adults whose identities were stolen and used by the killers all had their passports taken afar from them quickly during slight checks at the airport, it has been claimed.

The explanation by tactful sources that the Foreign Office has been told that the passports were copied by Israeli officials is the initial time Israel"s impasse has been without delay alleged.

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It will put serve vigour on the Israeli supervision that has been at the centre of a flourishing tactful charge over the probable impasse in the attempted attempted murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month.

Diplomatic sources contend ministers have been briefed that the pass rascal was committed by immigration officials who stopped the British nationals, who all right away live in Israel, as they went by the airfield during new trips.

The pass numbers were taken, majority expected by photocopy, and afterwards used to emanate new writings that were used by the strike squad.

The identities of French, German and Irish adults were additionally used.

The suspects used feign passports temperament their own pictures, but the names and numbers of the trusting Europeans.

All 6 British passports were not biometric, that equates to they did not have a computer thinly slice embedded in them and so the rascal would have been comparatively straightforward, experts believe.

The explanation will put serve vigour on Israel to come purify about what it knows following drawn out conjecture about the impasse of Mossad, the Israeli comprehension agency, in the killing, nonetheless alternative organisations have not been ruled out.

Mabhouh was one of the founders of Hamas"s troops wing and has been longed for by Israel for his purpose in the 1989 abduction and murdering of dual Israeli soldiers on leave.

He was murdered in a Dubai road house room in Jan after an blow up tract involving at slightest eleven assassins, together with at slightest one woman, posing as tourists, with a little wearing wigs and feign beards.

Six holders of British passports, 3 with Irish documents, one with a German pass and an additional with a French pass done up the strike team.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, hold talks with the Israeli envoy to London, Ron Prosor, last week as the row in jeopardy to expand in to a vital tactful crisis.

He denied that the Government was merely "going by the motions" and described the have make use of of of feign British passports in the gangland slaying as an "outrage".

But the Foreign Office pronounced it was as well early to assume on who could have carried out the temperament theft.

Michael Levi, a highbrow of criminology at Cardiff University and an consultant on temperament theft, pronounced the passports would not have been formidable to breach with.

He said: "The sort of organization that can lift off a strike similar to that will be means to have those sort of changes to a passport."

The Conservative leader, David Cameron, pronounced Israel contingency yield assurances that it would never permit the have make use of of of UK writings in operations by the tip service.

He additionally called for answers from the Government about when it knew that falsified writings were used in the attempted attempted murder on Jan 20. Reports last week purported that ministers might have had a before tip-off.