“Do you know what it feels like as a Cuban to see a ballistic missile rise from your balcony in Dubai? True story.” With this phrase, the Cuban doctor Alejandro Terry, who resides in that city, recounted witnessing the day when war broke into one of the safest bastions in the Middle East.
In an extensive account on his Facebook profile, Terry recounted that the day started off completely normally: early breakfast, strong coffee, lunch prepared with rice, beans, and chicken, and a commute to work, where he works as a manager in a stretching studio.
The morning passed with clients and training new instructors until a casual remark about a possible complication in the area alerted him that something unusual was happening.
Minutes later, he received a call asking him to return home immediately due to vibrations in the building and evacuations.
"I felt something strange in my chest. It wasn't fear yet, it was confusion," he wrote. During the journey, he noticed unusual traffic, hurried people, and an atmosphere of widespread alarm.
In their home, distant explosions began to be heard. From the balcony, they saw a THAAD interceptor missile rising. "It's a line of fire ascending in the sky, bright, violent, fast. Like a lightning bolt in reverse," they described.
He reported multiple launches, aerial explosions, and the shaking of walls while his phone issued official alerts instructing people to seek shelter indoors.
In a video afterward, he stated that the situation created “a state of war” in the country and that he had never witnessed missile interceptions in the air.
“I was a bit in shock,” he said, although he assured that he was fine and that the authorities were responding.
The Cuban noted that the government communications were clear and that the defense systems operated quickly.
According to his account, the U.S.-made THAAD and Patriot missiles intercepted threats, while the government insisted on maintaining calm.
“Dubai has never been attacked like this. Never," he emphasized, underscoring that the city has no recent memory of a similar experience.
His testimony comes after attacks from Iran struck facilities in Dubai, including the Fairmont The Palm hotel in Palm Jumeirah, where a fire and four injuries were reported, and an incident involving drone debris that caused a minor fire on the facade of the Burj Al Arab, according to official confirmations.
The Ministry of Defense of the United Arab Emirates reported that it intercepted 137 missiles and over 200 drones, describing the action as a "blatant violation of national sovereignty and international law." Iranian media claimed to have attacked Dubai without specifying targets.
As a consequence of the regional escalation, the death of the Iranian supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was confirmed by Tehran following the joint military operation conducted by the United States and Israel against strategic targets in the Persian nation.
In response, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced attacks on U.S. bases in the region and targets in Israel.
In this context, the Epic Fury Operation has resulted in three American soldiers dead and five seriously injured, according to the U.S. Central Command.
President Donald Trump warned that he will respond with "an unprecedented force" if Iran carries out new offensives against American or Israeli interests.
While governments exchange threats and military figures, Terry's account reflects the human impact of the escalation: the interrupted routine, the hurried preparation of a backpack with documents and passport, the sound of explosions, and the sight of interceptor missiles crossing the sky of a city that, until now, had been perceived as an oasis untouched by war.
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