One dead, 12 hurt in Qatar car bomb blast
DOHA, Qatar -- A car bomb tore through a theater popular with Westerners during a performance Saturday in Doha, killing one person, officials said.
Twelve other people were injured in the blast in the northern suburb, Qatar's Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Lisa Kirchner, spokeswoman for Carnegie Mellon University's campus in Doha, said none of the school's 48 faculty and staff members were in the vicinity of the theater when the blast occurred.
"After we heard about the explosion, we contacted everyone by telephone to make sure they were safe," said Kirchner, director of marketing and public relations for CMU's Doha campus. The school opened its Qatar campus in August.
About an hour before the explosion, the 37-member Doha Singers -- three of whom are on staff at CMU -- were performing at the Doha English Speaking School, which is about three blocks from the Doha Players Theater. The blast occurred at about 9 p.m. during a performance of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night."
The theater is a popular venue for non-Qataris from Western and Arab countries and is located in Farek Kelab, a northern suburb of the capital.
A British school is located nearby. The U.S. Embassy is six miles away, and a U.S. military base is almost 12 miles away.
The British Foreign Office confirmed the fatality was a British national, but did not identify the victim.
Al-Arabiya satellite news network, citing Qatari sources, reported that two people were killed and 16 injured in the Saturday evening blast.
"Doha has been a safe and secure place to study, live and work and we have people who monitor the security situation," Kirchner said. "So we will be looking at what impact this incident will have on the overall security of the area."
A witness said most of those injured were foreigners.
"I saw people lying on the ground. I think they were in shock because of the explosion," said Ahmed Goudah.
Goudah said dozens of cars were smashed and had their windows shattered. Some were engulfed in flames. Firefighters and emergency vehicles converged on the area, which was sealed off by police.
He said ambulances were seen carrying the injured and transferring them to hospital.
U.S. Army Capt. Eric Clark, who is based in Qatar, said he spoke with a woman who was performing when the blast shook the hall.
"She heard a massive explosion, and there was mass chaos and people just exited the building," Clark said by telephone.
Eric Mattey, a spokesman for the British embassy in Doha, told Britain's Press Association news agency that a number of people outside the theater had been injured.
"We believe there have been some injuries but it was from flying glass more than anything else," he said.
Such violence is rare in Qatar, a small, quiet country with tight security. The last incident of this type was the February 2004 car bomb assassination of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, a rebel leader and former Chechen president who had lived in Qatar for several years.
A Qatari court later convicted two Russian intelligence officers of the murder and sentenced them to 25 years in prison.
Energy-rich Qatar is a close ally of the United States in the Gulf. The country is home to the U.S. Central Command's forward operations in the Middle East.
