President Hosni Mubarak said Thursday that the mastermind of the attempt on his life was a Sudanese. He ordered 70 Sudanese evicted from a disputed border area and threatened further, unspecified actions against Sudan.
In a nationally televised speech to Egyptian intellectuals and artists, Mubarak renewed his accusation that Sudan's leading Islamic cleric, Hassan Turabi, was involved in the assassination attempt Monday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.Egypt has long accused Sudan of training Muslim radicals bent on toppling Mubarak's secular government and installing strict Islamic rule. Immediately after the attack, Mubarak accused Sudan of having a hand in the attempted killing, and he has reasserted that claim several times since.
Mubarak said Thursday the mastermind of the plot has been identified as Mohammed Seraj of Sudan. Seraj was shot during a gun battle after the attack, escaped, but was later arrested, Mubarak said, without citing sources for any of his information.
Two of the seven to nine attackers died. Mubarak said one was a Yemeni, and the other may have been an Egyptian.
Ethiopian authorities confirmed that Seraj was the architect of the assassination plot but have not identified his nationality. A high-ranking security official in Addis Ababa denied Mubarak's claims that Seraj had been taken into custody.
Mubarak said the attack had been planned for months.
"They were planning this operation since March, Turabi and his colleagues," Mubarak said. "Unfortunately, all suspicions are that the operation came out of Sudan."
Sudanese military leader Gen. Omar Hassan el-Bashir on Wednesday denied Sudan's involvement and called Mubarak's accusations "irresponsible." Turabi, viewed as the power behind el-Bashir's government, also has denied a role in the attack.