Israel has assassinated a senior Hamas military commander in Dubai, an official in the Palestinian Islamist group said on Friday. Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed on January 20, Izzat al-Rishq told Reuters in the Syrian capital Damascus.

'I cannot reveal the circumstances. We are working with the authorities in the United Arab Emirates,' said Rishq, who is a member of Hamas's politburo.

Israeli officials had no immediate comment.

Rishq said Mabhouh was an 'important' member of Izz el-Deen al- Qassam brigades, Hamas's military wing named after a Syrian religious leader who fought British colonial forces in Palestine in the 1930s.

Mabhouh, born 50 years ago in the Gaza Strip but who had been living in Syria since 1989, was assassinated a day after he arrived in Dubai, said Rishq.

Syria and Iran are the main backers of Hamas, which was founded two decades ago and now controls the Gaza Strip.

Israel has killed a number of Hamas figures since then, but the group has refused to abandon its fight against the Jewish state.

Rishq, who lives in exile in Damascus, along with several of Hamas's main figures, said Mabhouh engineered the capture of two Israeli soldiers during a Palestinian uprising in the 1980s. The soldiers were later killed.

Mabhouh and was imprisoned several times by Israeli forces. Israel razed his home in Gaza, Rishq added.

A diplomat in Damascus said it was too early to say if Mabhouh's past was linked to his death.

'The Israelis have a long memory for sure, but one cannot draw conclusions yet. It might be easier for the Israelis to kill him in Dubai than in Damascus,' the diplomat said.

The United States, which has started a rapprochement with Damascus, wants Syrian authorities to help neutralize Hamas as an armed Middle East force.

Syria, which is seeking peace with Israel, resisted U.S. pressure several years ago to expel the Hamas leadership and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said repeatedly that resistance was a legitimate right of the Palestinian people.

Hamas also has a presence in Lebanon. A bomb in Beirut killed two of its members in December.-Reuters