DOHA, March 20: A shocked Qatar on Sunday probed how an Egyptian suicide bomber killed a Briton and wounded 12 people near a British school in the capital Doha, amid fears the gas-rich state has become the latest target for militant attacks. Omar Ahmad Abdullah Ali detonated his booby-trapped car late on Saturday at the entrance to a theatre linked to the Doha English-Speaking School, the interior ministry said, according to the Al Jazeera news channel.

The blast, which went off while dozens of people were watching a play in the theatre, sparked a blaze that partially destroyed the building and set several nearby cars on fire. It was the first time Qatar, home to the US Central Command and the operational base for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, has been the site of such an attack against a Western target.

Saturday’s blast, exactly two years after the launch of the US invasion of Iraq, came as Saudi Arabia continues to battle a wave of terror blamed on Al Qaeda sympathizers which has left over 220 people dead since May 2003.

The foreign office in London said the dead man was a British national. Interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Ahmad al Hayki said the 12 wounded included one British citizen while the rest were Qataris, Arabs from other countries and Asians.—AFP