Investigators hunted for clues today as to whether al Qaeda was behind the suicide bombing of a Qatar theatre that killed a British national, the first such attack in the US-allied Gulf Arab state.
The bomber, an Egyptian national, rammed a car laden with explosives into the one-storey theatre near a British school in the capital Doha during a production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" last night.
The dead man was named by the British Foreign Office as Jonathan Adams.
Qatar served as command centre for US-led forces during the invasion of Iraq, and the sprawling As Saliya camp on the outskirts of Doha houses around 2,000 US troops. But the country had until this weekend's attacks been spared violence by al Qaeda, despite the group's vows to expel "infidels" from the region and topple US-allied rulers.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, which came two days after the suspected leader of al Qaeda's wing in Saudi Arabia urged Muslims in Qatar and other Gulf states to wage holy war against "crusaders" in the region.
Police sealed off the area around the Doha Players theatre, where around 100 people were said to have been watching the play. The blast shattered windows of cars and buildings in the area, including at the British school where staff living on the compound were immediately evacuated.
French President Jacques Chirac expressed outrage at the attack and said France had dispatched a team of explosives and criminal investigation experts to Doha at Qatar's request.
Last year, a car bomb in Doha killed exiled Chechen rebel leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. A Qatar court sentenced two Russians to life imprisonment for the assassination but they were later handed over to Moscow at Russia's request.