British Theatre Director is Qatar Suicide Bomb Victim

A British theatre director was named last night as the victim of a suicide car bombing in Qatar which officials believe is the first attack on western interests by al-Qaida in the tiny Gulf state.

Jon Adams, who was directing a production of Twelfth Night at the Doha Players Theatre, was killed when the car bomber detonated his device shortly before the end of the production on Saturday night.

He had apparently left the auditorium to investigate a commotion outside just before the explosion wrecked the theatre's cafe and dozens of nearby cars.

Eric Mattey, a spokesman for the British embassy in Doha, told Sky News: "It was chaotic. One of the buildings was completely flattened. It took the fire brigade a while to put the fire out and there was pandemonium in the area."

Twelve people in the audience of around 100 were injured. Ten were later released from hospital.

The Foreign Office in London said Mr Adams' family did not want any information about him released.

Gerard Kennedy, a board member of the largely British Doha Players, who are celebrating their 50th anniversary, said many more people might have been killed if the play had not been brought forward.

"We started the play an hour early so people could go home earlier for work on Sunday. They hit at exactly the moment when the place would have been full of people queuing for teas," he said.

Qatar's interior ministry said an Egyptian who owned the car, Omar Ahmed Abdullah Ali, carried out the attack.

No group has claimed responsibility but government officials are convinced it was linked to al-Qaida.

"There's no doubt about it," one told the Guardian. "It's part and parcel of what's happening in the whole region."

He said it was unclear whether the attack had been prompted by a taped message issued last week in the name of Salih al-Oufi, the leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian peninsula. In the tape, Saudi-based Oufi called on militants in Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait to attack targets of the "crusaders" in their own countries.

The official said the bombing appeared to be directed against Qatar's pro-western policies and at frightening expatriate workers. About 5,000 Britons work in Qatar, mainly in the oil and gas industry, banking, construction and teaching. Several hundred recently moved to Qatar from Saudi Arabia after similar attacks there.

In 2003 the US military directed the invasion of Iraq from Qatar, having transferred operations from Saudi Arabia, where the government was fearful of reaction from militants.

Although most Qataris belong to the Wahhabi sect, the branch of Islam that spawned Osama bin Laden, they have little in common with the puritanical version of Wahhabism that dominates in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.