Egypt Links Trade Center Blast to International Plot : Terrorism: Information given to U.S. officials implicates Iraqis, Iranians and a group of Islamic extremists operating out of Pakistan.

Egypt has handed over to U.S. authorities information pointing to an international plot behind the bombing of the World Trade Center--allegedly including Iranians, Iraqis and funding from the Muslim Brotherhood organization in Germany, a top aide to President Hosni Mubarak said Thursday.

The plot reportedly was conceived and planned by Islamic extremists operating from Peshawar, Pakistan, a city at the northwestern frontier with Afghanistan.

According to Egyptian intelligence information, two men who spoke Farsi, the Iranian language, turned up in New York months before the Feb. 26 bombing. They allegedly made contact with some of the suspects now charged in the blast.

Later, two Iraqi men showed up. All four men are believed to have fled the United States after the bombing.

Furthermore, according to the reported Egyptian scenario, funding for the bombers came from the Muslim Brotherhood in Germany. The brotherhood, a 70-year-old international organization banned in most Arab countries because of its goal of creating Islamic fundamentalist regimes, operates schools, clinics and cultural centers in many European capitals.

“The information we passed on represents . . . the best of our knowledge, so far as we are able to gather facts and materials,” said Osama Baz, the Egyptian leader’s senior political adviser. “Some of the information could be defective or could be inadequate here or there.”

He said the Egyptian intelligence came from several sources but did not give details. Baz spoke at an informal question-and-answer session with foreign journalists in Cairo.

In response to a reporter’s question, he confirmed that the following scenario is “an accurate approximation” of the information given to U.S. officials.

The account pulls together many of the bits and pieces already known about the World Trade Center bombing suspects and their connections.

Mahmud Abouhalima, an Egyptian cab driver who was arrested at his parents’ home near Alexandria, Egypt, two weeks after the bombing, reportedly gave Egyptian security police details about the plot under torture.

Abouhalima, who left New York just after the bombing, said that two Iraqi men were involved in the planning, Egyptian sources have told Newsday.

In addition, early reports disclosed that several thousand dollars had been transferred from Germany into bank accounts of two accused bombers in advance of the explosion. Abouhalima lived in Germany for four years and had strong links to Muslim groups.

Peshawar also has been suspected as where the plot was conceived. Two of the suspects in the bombing, using false passports, flew to New York from Peshawar in September, 1992, according to law enforcement sources.

One, Palestinian Mohammad Ahmad Ajaj, was arrested by immigration authorities at John F. Kennedy International Airport. He was carrying manuals on bomb-making. The second, a man believed to be Iraqi named Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, arrived on the same plane with an airline ticket containing a registration number consecutive to that of Ajaj. He disappeared after his arrival.

In the year since the Afghan civil war ended, Peshawar has become a headquarters for some who fought on the side of Afghan rebels and have since turned their energies to overthrowing secular Arab governments like Egypt’s.

Several Arab states facing Islamic militant insurgencies, including Algeria and Egypt, have already accused Iran of recruiting and backing these extremists from the Afghan war.