Controversy Surrounds Doha Explosion As Tens Of Foreigners Reported Killed
Mar 21, 2005
As Police investigators were searching yesterday for possible al-Qaida links to the bomb attack in Qatar on Saturday, uncensored, first hand reports of the events from the scene just following the attack are creating controversy over the official story.
The explosion on Saturday night at a theatre frequented by foreign nationals and that bore the hallmarks of an al-Qaida expedition coincided with the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Qatar is home to the US Central Command base from where the invasion and subsequent US military operations in Iraq have been co-coordinated.
Wire reports claimed that one Briton was killed in the attack however Saif Al-Tawheed posting to the Arabic Al-Ansar site and citing first hand witness accounts tells a different story.
�A relative of mine, living in Qatar, that I regularly stay in touch called me just 30 minutes after the explosion in Doha was reported by main stream media. This relative lives near the scene of the
explosion and he informed me that tens of foreigners had been killed and he himself had seen many dead westerners. He went on to say that American soldiers arrived at the scene before the Qatar security forces did and that he received a telephone call from a physician who is a friend of our family confirming the same information regarding the casualties.
A friend of mine who works for Al-Jazeera told me that the Arabic station had received many telephone calls minutes after the explosion in an effort to get them to send a reporter to cover the event but that it appeared there was chaos and indecisiveness on their part. Some time later, Qatar officials arrived at the Al-Jazeera building and held a meeting with the station�s department heads. For almost 90 minutes, Al-Jazeera (based in Qatar) had no representatives on the scene and it was not until all dead bodies were evacuated and the area was full of security personnel that a reporter from Al-Jazeera showed up.�
The
attack was launched three months after a taped attributed to Osama bin Laden urged Mujahideen to step up attacks across the Gulf.
On Thursday, a statement from Al-Qaida of the Arabian Peninsula surfaced that continued the call for Muslims to wage jihad against western infiltrators in the region and that made specific references to Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Qatari authorities on Sunday blamed an Egyptian national Omar Ahmed Abdullah Ali for the bombing and identified him as the owner of the vehicle used in the attack.
As of press time, there has been no further confirmation of the casualties reported and no claim of responsibility.(JUS)
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