Hamas leader ‘was drugged and suffocated’

A HAMAS leader killed in his Dubai hotel room was drugged and then suffocated, police said yesterday, giving further details of the Cold War-style hit allegedly carried out by Mossad agents.

“The killers used the drug succinylcholine to sedate (Mahmud) al-Mabhuh before they suffocated him,” the statement quoted Major General Khamis Mattar al-Mazeina, deputy commander of Dubai police, as saying.

“The assassins used this method so that it would seem that his death wasnatural,” the statement said, adding that “there were no signs of resistance shown by the victim.”