Egypt’s newly-appointed vice-president Omar Suleiman, tipped to head a transitional government in the nation, survived an assassination attempt which left two of his bodyguards dead. The incident was reported by Fox News which said that the attempt had been made on January 29 when his motorcade had come under attack.
Quoting US officials, Fox said, “Such an attempt on the life of Omar Suleiman would mark an alarming turn in the uprising against the government of President Hosni Mubarak, who only recently named Suleiman as vice-president in an effort to quell the unrest and possibly line up a successor.”
The officials described it as an organised attack on Mr Suleiman’s motorcade.
But a senior Egyptian security source denied the report in the US media of the assassination attempt on Mr Suleiman. The source, who did not want to be named, said there was no truth to the report at all. The vice-president’s post was empty when Mr Mubarak tapped Mr Suleiman for the job after the massive anti-government protests began. Mr Suleiman would stand to take over as interim leader of Egypt in some of the proposals reportedly being considered for an expedited political transition. Fox News said Mr Suleiman also comes with an image problem of his own after serving as head of Mr Mubarak’s intelligence forces. “As spy chief, he was known for his strong-arm tactics and was seen as one of the region’s most feared and revered intelligence chiefs,” Fox said.