QATAR - Mar 20 - Police Look For Al Qaeda Link After Blast.

Police investigators are searching for possible Al Qaeda links to a bomb attack in Qatar that killed one Briton and sent shockwaves across the tiny gas-rich Gulf state until now untouched by terrorists. The explosion on Mar 19 night at a theatre popular with expatriates coincided with the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Qatar is home to the US Central Command base from which the invasion and subsequent US military operations in Iraq have been co-ordinated. The attack was launched three months after a taped recording attributed to Osama bin Laden urged followers to step up attacks across the Gulf and follows a wave of violence in Kuwait in January. On Mar 17 a fresh recording was posted on an Islamist website claiming to be from Saleh Al Oufi, the leader of a cell of Al Qaeda sympathisers in Saudi Arabia. The recording called on Muslims to wage holy war against "crusaders" in the region and made special mention of Bahrain, the UAE and Qatar. the French Pres Jacques Chirac, sent a team to Doha Mar 20 to assist investigations after Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, requested help. Initial leads suggested that an Egyptian national, Omar Ahmad Abdullah, carried out the bombing and died as his car rammed into the Doha Players Theatre during a performance of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Sources close to the government said the suspect had been working as an engineer with Qatar Petroleum. The British embassy in Qatar named the man killed as Jonathan Adams. Qataris, other Arabs and Asians were among 12 people injured in the blast. Qatar has ambitious plans to invest earnings from its gas reserves, the world's third largest, in expanding its tourism industry and promoting itself as a regional centre for business and finance. "The question now is whether the Qatari authorities can discover the al-Qaeda cell network quickly. If they can dismantle it I think confidence will be restored very fast as Qatar doesn't have a history of terrorist activity", said Mustafa Alani, director of the counter-terrorism department at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Centre. Saudi Arabia has been battling with Al Qaeda militants since May 2003, while Kuwaiti police claimed to have largely wiped out a 24-strong Al Qaeda cell in February following a series of gun battles. "What we're starting to see now is expansion into other Gulf states", Alani said. Last month Oman's authorities arrested a number of suspects. Rob Dakers, general manager for the Qatar Shell Service Company, said it was too early to tell what the effect of the explosion might be on the Qatari economy. "People are obviously concerned but Shell has confidence that the Qatari authorities will clamp down on such activities". Last month Shell took a 30% stake in a joint venture with state-controlled Qatar Petroleum to develop a $7bn (Euro5.3bn, [pounds sterling]3.6bn) LNG plant in Ras Laffan city.