Canada arrests suspect in Hamas militant's killing: police

Canada has arrested a suspect involved in the assassination of a senior Hamas leader who was killed in a Dubai luxury hotel early this year, the Gulf emirate's police chief said in a report today.

Canada has arrested a suspect involved in the assassination of a senior Hamas leader who was killed in a Dubai luxury hotel early this year, the Gulf emirate's police chief said in a report on Tuesday.

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"He was among the preparatory group which arrived in the country and left it before the crime" was committed, Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan was quoted as saying in the Arabic-language daily Al-Ittihad.

Mahmud al-Mabhuh, a founder of the military wing of the Islamist Hamas movement which controls the Gaza Strip, was found dead in his room in the Al Bustan Rotana hotel near Dubai airport on January 20.

Khalfan had received the information from the Canadian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Al-Ittihad said without revealing the name of the suspect.

But the daily added that the arrested person was among a number of suspects for which international red notices had been issued by Interpol on behalf of the UAE.

"We have no doubt that (Israel's spy agency) Mossad is behind the assassination. We are 100 per cent sure" of this, Khalfan said in the report.

Twelve British, six Irish, four French, one German and three Australian passports were used by the 26 people believed linked to the murder, according to Dubai police.

In many cases, the travel documents appeared either to have been faked or obtained illegally. The countries whose passports were used all called in Israeli envoys for talks.

Britain said in March that it was expelling one Israeli diplomat while Australia announced in May that it was throwing out an official from the Israeli embassy.

Israel has said there is no evidence linking it or Mossad to the assassination.