Qatar: Portuguese woman witnessed Iran attack
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When Iranian missiles hit the US air base, Al Udeid, in Qatar, Beatriz Gonzaga was just a few meters away from the incident. She is a flight attendant for Qatar Airways and was doing training when, suddenly, explosions began to be heard. “We knew there was some tension, but we weren’t expecting it to interfere with Qatar, or for the base to be hit,” she told Rádio Observador.
“I was in a Qatar Airways building, because at the moment I am doing training for two new planes”, the Portuguese woman began by telling the program Resposta Pronta , detailing that the place where she was “is not very far from the airport [in Doha] and it is also not very far from the American base”.
“There was information that we could be attacked and things happened very quickly. First, they ordered the evacuation of the military from the American base. Then, they told us that they were going to close the airspace here in Qatar, so no planes would land and no planes would take off,” he recalls. This decision was made public at around 4:30 pm on Monday, with the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs writing on the social network X that it had announced “the temporary suspension of air traffic in the country’s airspace, in order to guarantee the safety of citizens, residents and visitors”.
#بيان | الجهات القطرية المختصة تعلن عن إيقاف حركة الملاحة الجوية مؤقتاً في أجواء الدولة حرصاً على سلامة المواطنين والمقيمين والزائرين #الخارجية_القطرية pic.twitter.com/mRos4GZGkO
— الخارجية القطرية (@MofaQatar_AR) June 23, 2025
“About an hour later, when we were inside the classroom, we heard missiles exploding,” said the Portuguese woman. In total, at least 14 missiles were fired at what is the largest US base in the Middle East. According to Al Jazeera, the site covers 24 hectares and has capacity for 10,000 soldiers, although it is not known how many were there at the time of the attack.
???? #BREAKING : Iran has launched six missiles toward the largest US base in the Middle East, Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar
WATCH: Qatari air defenses in Doha working on Iranian missiles. pic.twitter.com/t4B3K33175
— CAIN (@XTechPulse) June 23, 2025
In the face of the Iranian attack, “we were warned not to leave where we were.” “As things calmed down, those who could go home did so, and we were warned to stay home,” he says, reporting that he walked home because “there were very few taxis and TVDEs, because everyone was trying to get home.”
The Portuguese woman is now in Doha, “waiting” for more information and explains that she has been “informing herself through social media, through various groups on WhatsApp and Facebook”.
[The police are called to a house after a noise complaint. When they arrive, the officers find a wild birthday party. But the birthday boy, José Valbom, has disappeared. “ O Zé faz 25” is Observador’s first fiction podcast, co-produced by Coyote Vadio and featuring the voices of Tiago Teotónio Pereira, Sara Matos, Madalena Almeida, Cristovão Campos, Vicente Wallenstein, Beatriz Godinho, José Raposo and Carla Maciel. You can listen to the 6th episode on Observador’s website , on Apple Podcasts , on Spotify and on Youtube Music . And the first episode here , the second here , the third here , the fourth here and the fifth here ]
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