Mubarak Attack Probe Focuses on Extremist Group : Egypt: Militants known for assaulting high-level officials are suspected of ambushing president in Ethiopia.

Egyptian and Ethiopian authorities Tuesday accelerated their investigation of the attempted assassination of President Hosni Mubarak, with the focus sharpening on a Muslim extremist group known for its attacks on high-level Egyptian officials.

Police in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where the incident took place, questioned eight people and uncovered a second hiding place allegedly used by the plotters. Egyptian police sent a team of top investigators to Ethiopia to assist.

Mubarak, 67, escaped unhurt Monday when six to nine gunmen ambushed his three-car motorcade as he arrived for a summit of African leaders. Two of the attackers were shot to death in the ensuing firefight, as were two Ethiopian police officers. An unspecified number of suspects were captured, and others escaped. Mubarak was saved by the armor plating and bulletproof glass of his limousine.

In Cairo, the Egyptian government staged a rally Tuesday in support of Mubarak that was attended by an estimated 5,000 people. The event, televised live from the Qebbeh Palace, was held amid tight security and drew an emotional reaction from many in the throng.

Mubarak used the occasion to once again blame the attack on terrorists and to more explicitly link it to Sudan, which has been accused by Cairo and Washington of sponsoring Islamist terrorism and has a longstanding border dispute with Egypt.

Mubarak pointed a finger at Hassan Turabi, an advocate of Islamist government often referred to as the behind-the-scenes power in the Sudanese government of Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir.

The semiofficial newspaper Al Ahram, which usually reflects Egyptian government thinking, also cited a Sudan connection but reported there were “some Egyptian faces” among the gunmen.

Sudan denied complicity, and Turabi was quoted in an Arabic-language newspaper as saying there was no substantiation for such charges.

Egypt has accused Sudan of lending support to the Muslim extremists who have waged a campaign of violence against the Mubarak government for the last three years, resulting in more than 800 deaths.

One of the groups involved in the conflict, the Vanguards of Conquest, came in for closer scrutiny after it was reported Tuesday that a man identifying himself with the organization had called the Cairo office of Al Hayat, a London-based Arabic-language newspaper, and claimed responsibility for the attack on Mubarak. He also reportedly said that the group will succeed in its next attempt.

Al Hayat has in the past received communiques from the group.

The Mubarak attack would fit the pattern of Vanguards operations, according to diplomats who monitor terrorist activities. Vanguards concentrates on relatively sophisticated attacks on high-level Egyptian officials and was implicated in an unsuccessful attempt to kill Prime Minister Atef Sedki in November, 1993.

The trial of 42 Vanguards members on charges that included some connected to the Sedki attack recently concluded, and the death sentences of two defendants were confirmed a few days ago.

Vanguards is an offshoot of the Islamic Jihad organization, which was responsible for the 1981 assassination of Mubarak’s predecessor, Anwar Sadat. The organizations split when the leader of the Vanguards faction, Mohammed Mekaawi, had a falling-out with Dr. Ayman Zawahiri, head of Islamic Jihad, according to a Western diplomat here.

Both men have been sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt but remain at large outside the country. That fact looms large in Mubarak’s frequent complaint that other countries, including some in Europe, often shelter terrorists.

Reports out of Ethiopia that explosives and rocket-propelled grenades were discovered by police in vehicles and houses connected to the attackers also would fit the Vanguards pattern. But it was unclear why, if they had such weaponry, the assailants attacked the bulletproof limousine with only machine guns.

Ethiopian television broadcast a grainy picture Tuesday of a man identified as the ringleader of the gunmen--Sarik Mohammed, said to be the renter of a house they used--and asked for the public’s help in catching him. But the TV report did not identify the source of the picture.