Row as Oz passports used in killing

CANBERRA - The global diplomatic fallout from what most of the world believes was a bungled assassination by the Israeli spy agency Mossad reached Australia yesterday as details emerged of the team that killed Palestinian Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel room.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd confirmed three Australian passports had been used by members of a hit team numbering at least 26, whose possession of fake foreign travel documents has sparked outrage around the world.

As well as the diplomatic fury lashing Israel, the electrocution and smothering of al-Mahmoud in his room at the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel on January 19 has seriously dented the aura of invincibility that has surrounded Mossad.

The operation has further raised serious issues for intelligence agencies operating in a world increasingly monitored by CCTV cameras, emerging new technologies such as biometric passports and sophisticated electronic money-tracking.

Dubai police have released CCTV footage of members of the team passing through immigration, meeting in shopping centres and in hotels - at one stage two joined al-Mahmoud in a hotel lift - posing as tourists and at times appearing disguised in wigs and false beards.

Automated passport systems further enable officials to check people when they apply for visas and after they board aircraft, allowing border officials to identify suspects before they land.

This week Australia announced plans to work with Britain to further tighten border controls by collecting fingerprints and biometric data during visa applications in 10 as yet unnamed countries.

Matthew Gray, senior lecturer at the Australian National University's Centre for Arabic and Islamic studies, said agencies such as Mossad would need to re-think the way they operated.

"If you want to assassinate people in the future you're going to have to re-think the fundamentals," he said.

"You're either going to have to lure [victims] to a neutral third country, or you're going to have to lure them to the target country, which for Mossad is Israel. That's going to be difficult."

Dubai investigators have also tracked credit cards used by the hit squad, tracing them to two banks in the United States and others in Britain, Gibraltar and Germany.

Investigators have been surprised by the discovery that two of the team apparently sailed to Iran after a surveillance mission to Dubai, despite Tehran's close support for Hamas and the difficulties facing Westerners in obtaining visas.

Three Palestinians are also reported to have been arrested.

Yesterday Dubai announced a further 15 suspects using fake passports had been added to the 11 already identified.

The hit team used 12 British passports, six Irish, four French, three Australian and one German, sparking furious protest from all five capitals.

Yesterday Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith summoned Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem to express Canberra's grave concern at Mossad's alleged use of his country's passports.

Federal Police and intelligence agencies are working with Dubai investigators, and Smith said Rotem was told Australia expected Israel to co-operate "fully and transparently".

Despite Canberra's strong links with Israel, Smith said: "I've made it crystal clear ... that if the results of this investigation cause us to come to the conclusion that the abuse of Australian passports was in any way sponsored or condoned by Israeli officials, then Australia would not regard that as the act of a friend ...

"I also indicated to [Rotem] that if we didn't receive that co-operation then we would potentially draw adverse conclusions from that."

The Australian passports, all issued in 2003 and before biometrics were introduced, were issued in the names of Adam Korman, Bruce Joshua Daniel and Nicole Sandra McCabe.

All live in Israel, as do many of the other nationals whose identities were stolen.

Korman told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonet the use of his identity was unbelievable, and Bruce's mother Sarah told AAP the photograph, signature and date of birth in the passport in his name were incorrect.

Smith said there was no information to suggest the three Australians were anything other than victims of identity fraud.

Gray said the assassination was a classic Mossad operation, but there were weird aspects, including the use of identities of living Israeli citizens - some had dual nationalities - and residents.

"One of the things Mossad has always prided itself on is protecting Israeli nationals," he said.

Gray said the size of the team was not surprising, given the difficulty of tracking and intercepting a target in a hostile country.

"You wouldn't send just one [small] team in, you'd send two or three. And you wouldn't have one plan. You'd have a backup. And if [the target] is there for only 24 hours, you'd have two or three possible places to hit him."