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| Arabia |
| Qatar denies al-Qaeda behind recent bombing |
| 2005-03-29 |
| Qatar's foreign minister has said he does not believe al Qaeda was behind a suicide bombing that killed a Briton in the capital Doha but has declined to speculate on who might have carried out the attack. In the March 19 bombing an Egyptian rammed an explosives-laden car into a theatre popular with Westerners in the first attack of its kind in the Gulf Arab state, host to a U.S. military base that directed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. "I don't believe this is (the work of) al Qaeda," Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani told reporters on Monday. Qatar has said investigators found the house where the car was rigged with explosives but has given no further details on the probe into the attack, in which at least 16 other people were wounded -- mostly Arabs and Asians. The attack occurred two days after al Qaeda's suspected leader in Saudi Arabia urged militants in Qatar and other Gulf states to wage a holy war against "crusaders" in the region. An unknown group calling itself The Army of the Levant claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on the Internet. Hamad dismissed the claim, saying he believed it was a propaganda stunt. He said he would not speculate on whether a terrorist cell might be operating in Qatar but did not rule out the possibility of further violence in the future. "This can happen anywhere... This could happen again," he said, without elaborating. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |