Britain has expelled an Israeli diplomat in connection with cloned passports used by suspects in the January killing of a Hamas leader in Dubai, a British government source familiar with the situation told CNN Tuesday.

Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom met with British Foreign Office officials on Monday, the source said.

The expelled diplomat's rank and identity were not released, and the source did not say when the diplomat was expelled.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a founding member of Hamas' military wing, was found dead January 20 in his Dubai hotel room. Police believe he was killed the night before, allegedly by the secretive Israeli foreign intelligence unit Mossad.

Two sources told CNN earlier this month that the number of identified suspects in al-Mabhouh's death was up to 27. Of them, 26 were carrying European or Australian passports, authorities have said.

The sources -- an official familiar with the investigation and a police source -- did not say which nation issued the passport used by the 27th suspect.

The suspects are believed to have acquired false passports to travel to Dubai for the killing, then scattered to several far-flung locations afterward. But Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Dubai police chief, has said not all the suspects had fraudulent passports. "We know some of the names are real," he said.

Interpol, the international police agency, has issued "red notices" to help search for the suspects. The notices are not international arrest warrants, but are a way of alerting police forces around the world that the suspects are wanted by United Arab Emirates authorities.

Interpol expands search for suspects

Interpol Secretary-General Ronald K. Noble said investigators have established "clear" links through passport records, video surveillance, DNA analysis, witness interviews and hotel, credit card, phone and transport records, according to a statement.

Police have said toxicology results show al-Mabhouh was injected with succinylcholine, a drug used to relax muscles during surgery or as an anesthetic, before he was suffocated. Signs indicated that al-Mabhouh resisted as he was being suffocated, police said.

Al-Mabhouh's family members were told earlier that police had found blood on a pillow. Authorities have also said the killers left some of al-Mabhouh's medication next to him in an apparent effort to make the death appear natural. But "the medication left next to him in the room has nothing to do with the killing," Tamim has said.

Tamim told CNN last month that he is "100 percent sure" Mossad was responsible. "The Mossad needs to be ashamed of its actions," he said. "They sent 26, 27 persons to assassinate one man who was involved in the capturing and killing of two Israeli soldiers."

Dubai police: Mossad should be 'ashamed'

Hamas has said al-Mabhouh was behind the 1989 deaths of the Israeli soldiers.

Israel has a stated policy on security matters of neither confirming nor denying involvement. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, however, told Israel Army Radio earlier this month, "There is certainly no reason to think that the Mossad and not some other intelligence agency of another country operated there."

The total of 27 suspects does not include two Palestinians arrested in Jordan and returned to Dubai. Tamim said one is not believed to be directly involved in al-Mabhouh's death, but "he is wanted by one of the Palestinian factions in the Palestinian territories and he is sentenced to death and that's why we will extradite him." He declined to discuss anything about the other Palestinian.

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