6 Muslim Extremists Held in Assassination of Egyptian Official; 2 Others Slain

Egyptian police shot and killed two Muslim extremists Saturday and arrested six others as suspects in the assassination of parliamentary Speaker Rifaat Mahgoub two weeks ago, authorities said.

Three police officers were wounded in a gun battle before detaining members of an Muslim group said to be the outlawed Jihad (Holy War).

Two fellow extremists were killed in another gun battle in Cairo later in the day. A third extremist and a police officer were wounded in that clash.

An official statement, read on Egypt’s state-run radio and television, indicated that the Muslim group had received foreign support.

The Egyptian government earlier barred local and foreign news media from reporting Saturday’s shoot-outs.

The underground Jihad group, seeking to change Egypt into a strictly Muslim state, was blamed for the assassination of former President Anwar Sadat at a military parade in October, 1981.

Mahgoub, 64, was assassinated Oct. 12 by at least five gunmen using motorcycles in a machine-gun attack in central Cairo. Four police officers and Mahgoub’s driver were also killed in the attack.

As Speaker of the People’s Assembly, Mahgoub was second in line to the presidency after President Hosni Mubarak.

Since Mahgoub’s murder, authorities have detained more than 1,000 people--mostly Iraqis and Palestinians--for questioning. The government suspected that agents sent by Iraq killed the Mahgoub, possibly in league with Egyptian Muslim extremists, to punish Egypt for leading Arab opposition to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

Security sources only recently began concentrating on Muslim militants after concluding that bombs found where Mahgoub was shot were similar to those used by fundamentalists in previous attacks.