Israeli spy behind Mabhuh's murder in Dubai dies

Occupied Jerusalam - Dagan, who battled liver cancer and had undergone a transplant, led the Mossad from 2002 through 2010.

Meir Dagan, a former head of Israeli spy agency Mossad, who was wanted for murder of top Hamas leader Mahmud Al Mabhuh in a Dubai hotel in 2010, has died at the age of 71.
The incident caused an international uproar, with the Dubai authorities pointing the finger at Israel, and releasing surveillance footage showing a team of Israeli agents who killed Mabhuh.
There were reports that those involved used British, Irish, French, Australian and German passports.
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.
Dagan, who battled liver cancer and had undergone a transplant, led the Mossad from 2002 through 2010.
He was reportedly tasked with sabotaging the nuclear programme of Israel's arch-foe Iran to prevent it from developing atomic weapons.
But while leading that secret war, he also strongly opposed a military strike against Iran, a position shared by the military's then-chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi.
Under Dagan's leadership, the Mossad is believed to have assassinated Iranian nuclear scientists, caused explosions at nuclear facilities and used computer viruses to damage uranium centrifuges.
The Mossad has never confirmed such operations.
Several other controversial operations were attributed to the Mossad during Dagan's unusually long tenure, including a 2008 car bomb in Damascus that killed top Hezbollah operative Imad Mughniyeh.
Others included a 2008 air raid in Sudan against an alleged Iranian arms convoy said to be destined for Palestinian movement Hamas and a 2007 bombing of a suspected desert nuclear site in Syria.
There were reports that those involved used British, Irish, French, Australian and German passports.
The bespectacled and stocky Dagan was a descendant of Holocaust survivors who emigrated from Siberia to Israel in 1950. He kept a photo hung in his office of his grandfather on his knees before being executed by Nazi soldiers.
Before taking the reins at the Mossad, he led a secret commando unit in the 1970s known as the Rimon squad, which reportedly carried out summary executions of Palestinians accused of attacks in the Gaza Strip.
After leaving the Mossad, Dagan did not shy away from criticising Netanyahu. He joined a protest in Tel Aviv in March 2015 against the prime minister in the run up to elections and delivered a fiery address. - AFP
"Israel has enemies but I do not fear them. What scares me is the current leadership of the country," he said.