Six suspects in the assassination of a senior Hamas official in Dubai entered the country using British passports, it emerged yesterday.

Police in the Gulf state announced that they were hunting for 11 suspects, including a woman, for the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a top Hamas commander, who was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on January 20.

Six of these suspects were travelling on British passports and three were carrying Irish passports, including the woman. The other two entered Dubai with German and French passports.

“We have no doubts that it was 11 people holding these passports, and we regret that they used the travel documents of friendly countries,” said Lieutenant-General Dhafi Khalfan, Dubai’s chief of police.