Aneeta (name changed), a native of Wayanad now living in Bahrain where her husband works, feared for her life when the deafening blasts hit her neighborhood on Saturday afternoon.
Alarms squealed as the dust swirled and settled like a blanket over the ground, while smoke curled skyward in restless spirals. Within moments, her apartment shook as if an earthquake had hit it, raining flakes of concrete. It was only then that Aneeta, in her 30s, realized that the blasts were part of an Iranian strike on a nearby US base.
“By the time our cell phones flashed an alert about an impending attack, the attack had already begun. It’s still a blur of how I grabbed my daughter’s hand and ran into the open. The roads were full of fleeing vehicles and later friends picked us up and took us to safety,” she recalled, still shaking at the memory. The absence of her husband on an official trip to Muscat made the ordeal even more harrowing. Although the attack was widely expected during last year’s standoff between Iran and Israel, the feared escalation never materialized.
As tensions in West Asia escalated following Israeli and US attacks on Iran, Malaysian expatriates shared panicked reports and videos of the attacks on social media.
Arun Kumar, a businessman from Qatar, said he had just gone out for lunch when the attack broke out nearby. “There was a loud noise next to the hotel and then fireballs. At that time I got a government warning to stay inside and rushed back to my place,” he said.
A Malaysian Kuwait Airways crew member who was due to return to Kuwait after completing a flight to New York was stranded at JFK Airport when Kuwait closed its airspace in anticipation of an attack on a US base. “We have been moved to a hotel and it is not clear when flights will resume,” he said.
However, calm reigned in Oman. “Probably because there is no American base here,” said a Malaysian accountant from Marad. However, the Indian Embassy in Muscat still issued a recommendation. “In view of the current regional situation, all Indian nationals in the Sultanate of Oman are advised to avoid unnecessary travel, exercise due caution, remain vigilant and adhere to safety instructions and advisories as and when issued by the Omani authorities and the Indian Embassy,” the advisory said.
Meanwhile, Saeed Muhammed, a resident of Vennala in Ernakulam, who moved to Dubai earlier this month for a new job, said “everything is fine”.
Published – 28 Feb 2026 21:35 IST
