You'd think a stable married 38 yo computer programmer would be a safe security risk. But this one wasn't:
Doha suicide bomber worked for Qatar Petroleum
387 words 21 March 2005 02:38 am Platts Commodity NewsServiceLine Copyright
2005. Platts
Dubai (Platts)-21Mar2005/231 am EST/731 GMT
One Briton was killed and 12 people were injured in a car bomb attack Saturday outside a theater frequented by expatriates in the Qatari capital Doha, the Qatar-based television channel Al-Jazeera reported Sunday. It was the first major attack against a Western target in the tiny oil and gas-producing emirate, which now serves as a major US airbase in the Gulf region. Al- Jazeera quoted the Qatari interior ministry as saying the suicide bomber was an Egyptian national, Omar Ahmad Abdullah Ali. French news agency AFP later reported that Ali was a computer programmer for state-owned Qatar Petroleum. Qatar, a member of OPEC, is a modest oil producer but holds the
world's third biggest natural gas reserves after Russia and Iran. The bombing came on the 2nd anniversary of the start of the US-led war against Iraq.
OPEC oil producer Qatar served as home to the US Central Command during the 2003 war. It followed warnings that the militant al-Qaeda organization was planning further attacks in the oil-rich Gulf region against Western interests.
Dubai (Platts)-21Mar2005/236 am EST/736 GMT
Ali detonated the bomb-laden car outside a theater adjacent to the Doha English-Speaking School, causing walls to collapse and sparking a fire, witnesses and the interior ministry said.
Ali's wife, who gave her name as Umm Abdullah, described her husband as a devout Muslim and a man of integrity. Ali, 38, worked as a computer programmer at Qatar Petroleum and had been living in Doha since 1990, she told AFP. The car he owned and which was used in the attack was a black Land Cruiser.
Saturday's blast, exactly two years after the launch of the
US invasion of Iraq, came as neighboring Saudi Arabia continues to battle a wave of terror blamed on al-Qaeda sympathizers which has left over 220 people dead since May 2003. Kuwait, another US ally in the Gulf, has been rocked by gunbattles involving Islamist militants believed linked to counterparts in Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The Foreign Office in London said the dead man was a British national. |
