  Within a hadron-string dynamical transport approach (HSD) we investigate the
attenuation of high transverse momentum ($\pT$) hadrons as well as the
suppression of 'near-side' and 'far-side' jets in $Au+Au$ collisions at
invariant energies $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV and $\sqrt{s}$ = 62.4 GeV in comparison
to the data available from the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC). From our
transport studies we find that a significant part of the high $\pT$ hadron
attenuation seen experimentally can be attributed to inelastic interactions of
'leading' pre-hadrons with the dense hadronic environment. In addition, we also
show results of 'near-side' and 'far-side' angular correlations of high $\pT$
particles from Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV and $\sqrt{s}$ = 62.4
GeV within this (pre-)hadronic attenuation scenario. It turns out that the
'near-side' correlations are unaltered -- in accordance with experiment --
whereas the 'far-side' correlations are suppressed by up to $\sim$ 60% in
central collisions. Since a much larger suppression is observed experimentally
for these reactions in central reactions we conclude that there should be
strong additional (and earlier) partonic interactions in the dense and possibly
colored medium created in Au+Au collisions at RHIC.
