Qatar looks for Qaeda link in theatre bombing

Investigators yesterday hunted for any clues to see if al Qaeda was behind the suicide bombing by an Egyptian on a Qatar theatre that killed a Briton, the first such attack in the US-allied Gulf Arab state.

The Egyptian man rammed a car packed with explosives into the one-storey theatre near a British school in the capital, Doha, officials and witnesses said.

The attack took place on the second anniversary of the start of the Iraq war but there was no indication so far of any connection.

Oil-rich Qatar served as command centre for US-led forces during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the sprawling As Saliya base on the outskirts of Doha houses some 2,000 US troops.

But the country had until this weekend's attacks been spared militant violence despite vows by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda to expel "infidels" from the region and topple US-allied rulers.

An Interior Ministry statement on state media identified the suicide attacker as Omar Ahmad Abdullah Ali, who also owned the vehicle. Egypt's Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment.

A Qatari Interior Ministry official earlier said the blast had injured 16 people, mostly Arabs and Asians.

The British Foreign Office identified the dead Briton as Jonathan Adams but declined to give further details.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred two days after the suspected leader of al Qaeda's wing in Saudi Arabia urged Muslims in Qatar and other Gulf Arab states to wage holy war against "crusaders" in the region.

Brigadier General Ahmad al-Hayki said in televised comments that the Interior Ministry was investigating any al Qaeda link.

A US embassy spokeswoman said: "It is too early to characterise the bombing or to draw any kinds of links or connections."

Qatar - a peninsula jutting into the Gulf - prides itself on its security and has not experienced suicide bombings before.