Egypt’s No. 2 Official Slain : Parliament Speaker, 4 Others Shot

Motorcycle-riding assassins wielding machine guns shot and killed Egypt’s Speaker of Parliament, three bodyguards and a driver in an attack today near the heavily guarded U.S. and British Embassies in Cairo, officials and witnesses said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack by four men on two motorcycles against a two-car motorcade escorting Speaker Rifaat El Mahgoub, 64, on the Muslim day of prayers.

But Egyptian security officials said they suspect foreign-trained terrorists rather than Egyptian Islamic fundamentalists. The slaying came amid fears of terrorist attacks by pro-Iraqi groups opposing the presence of a U.S.-led international force deployed after Iraq invaded Kuwait Aug. 2.

Mahgoub, educated at Sorbonne University in Paris, was the No. 2 official in Egypt and would have succeeded President Hosni Mubarak in an emergency. He supported late Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

Mubarak condemned the slaying as “evil,” but said it would not divert his administration away from its policy of “protecting the Arab and Islamic world’s sacred heritage.”

Earlier this week, Interior Minister Lt. Gen. Mohammed Abdulhalim Mussa said security forces had uncovered an Iraqi conspiracy to assassinate senior Egyptian political figures.

At least 30 Iraqi and Palestinian alleged terrorists were rounded up on suspicion of belonging to a group headed by notorious Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal. Arrested pro-Iraqi terrorists allegedly were receiving arms and explosives from Egyptian fundamentalists in Upper Egypt who are opposed to the presence of U.S.-led forces in the Persian Gulf region.

Egypt has contributed troops to the international force.

President Bush telephoned Mubarak to express his regret at the killings, Cairo Radio said, adding that Syrian President Hafez Assad and Jordan’s King Hussein also expressed regret at the incident.

An Egyptian Islamic group called the Islamic Brotherhood also condemned Mahgoub’s assassination.

A manhunt was launched for the motorcyclists, described as being between 20 and 25 years old, who opened fire on Mahgoub’s motorcade at 11 a.m. on the banks of the River Nile near the Shepheard Hotel.