By Yusuf Danjuma Yunusa
Qatar’s military successfully intercepted two missiles targeting the country on Saturday, as Iran pressed forward with its retaliatory air campaign against Gulf states. The attack triggered widespread panic in the capital, Doha, and prompted authorities to evacuate several key areas as a precautionary measure.
Eyewitnesses, including AFP journalists, reported seeing interceptors destroying two projectiles over the city’s downtown district and hearing subsequent explosions. The Qatari defence ministry confirmed the attack in two separate statements, announcing its military had “intercepted” the incoming missiles.
The assault comes amid heightened regional tensions. Earlier this week, Iran’s military vowed to strike US and Israeli economic interests in the region. An Iranian news agency specifically listed tech giants as possible “future targets,” a threat that now appears to be materializing.
In response to the immediate danger, Qatar’s interior ministry announced it was “evacuating several key areas as a temporary precautionary measure… until the danger has passed.”
The impact was felt most acutely in Doha’s central Musheireb district, a bustling area home to the country offices of US tech giant Google and payments firm American Express. Residents received urgent phone alerts instructing them to “evacuate the area immediately… to the nearest safest place.” An AFP journalist on the scene witnessed scores of residents and hotel guests rushing into underground car parks for shelter, as law enforcement cordoned off streets.
The precautionary measures extended beyond the city center. In the northern district of Lusail, police were stationed outside the Qatar headquarters of Microsoft. Similarly, in the Al-Gharafa area west of Doha, near the US embassy, some residents also received evacuation alerts.
The evacuations are the latest in a series of security responses to the escalating conflict. Authorities had already vacated buildings around the American diplomatic mission in Doha on 5 March, following previous threats to US embassies across the region.
As the oil-rich Gulf state finds itself on the front line of Iran’s retaliation for US-Israeli strikes, Saturday’s successful interception underscores the heightened state of alert and the very real threat posed to both strategic US assets and civilian infrastructure in the region.
