Ex-Winnipeggers take war in the Middle East in stride

WINNIPEG — Former Winnipeg resident Arthur Riazuddin was relaxing on a Dubai beach with fellow Canadians Saturday when they started hearing loud bangs and seeing puffs of smoke in the sky.

The echoing booms were the sound of the United Arab Emirates’ air defence systems taking out some of the first ballistic missiles fired from Iran while a new war flared in the Middle East.

“We slowly made our way out of there and back home,” Riazuddin, 39, said from Dubai Wednesday. “Obviously, that first evening was a little bit uneasy just because we didn’t know what was going on.”

Iran fired missiles and drones toward the UAE, an American ally, and other countries in the region after the U.S. and Israel launched air strikes against Tehran’s regime Saturday. The UAE is located across the Persian Gulf from Iran.

Riazuddin, a real estate agent and investment adviser, made a permanent move from Winnipeg to the coastal city of Dubai a year ago for work.

He estimated he heard 20 to 30 bangs Saturday, with fewer heard each day since then. People receive alerts on their cellphones, telling them to seek shelter if a threat is detected.

Riazuddin, who has no plan to leave Dubai, which has a reputation as a safe haven, said he feels protected and taken care of in the UAE.

“We feel confident they have things under control and we’re safe,” he said.

Saturday was the first time he witnessed the UAE’s air defence systems at work. He described the country’s response as “very co-ordinated and highly effective,” with life carrying on as normal amid the days-long and expanding war.

The UAE’s air defence systems have detected 189 ballistic missiles since Saturday, with only one hitting its territory, the country said Wednesday.

It said 876 Iranian drones were destroyed and 65 fell within the country. One of the drones struck near the U.S. consulate in Dubai. Eight cruise missiles were destroyed.

The UAE reported three civilian deaths (foreign workers from Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan) and 78 minor injuries. Airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi were damaged.

Other people who live in the Middle East and have ties to Manitoba spoke of warning sirens, bomb shelter visits or missile interceptions being the norm during current and past conflicts.

A Winnipeg-born man who lives in Tel Aviv, Israel, was in a bomb shelter for the ninth time on Wednesday alone when he responded to an email from a Winnipeg Free Press reporter.

Elsewhere, Jenni Menashe, who grew up in Winnipeg, was walking home from a synagogue in a village north of Jerusalem when a siren went off Saturday. She went into a shelter with a friend who was visiting from the U.S.

“This is the norm. We are used to this,” Menashe said about heading to the shelter. She noted the history of conflict in the region, including the October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel that led to war.

While some people were stressed, most of those in the shelter remained calm until it was time to emerge. People used humour to lighten the mood, she said.

There was a lot of talk about how the latest war began close to the festive holiday of Purim, which celebrates the biblical story of the salvation of Jews from annihilation in ancient Persia.

“People were talking about how biblical this all sounded. Here we are having this war with Iran,” said Menashe, who lives in Kochav Yaakov, a settlement in the West Bank.

Sirens occasionally sounded in the village Wednesday. Menashe’s phone regularly received emergency alerts.

“It basically is a pre-warning to the siren going off. The phone will buzz and flash, and that basically is supposed to give you 10 minutes to find your shelter and get to your shelter,” she said.

Menashe, 59, continued to hear the booming noise of incoming missiles being destroyed by Israel’s Iron Dome defence system.

“The booms sometimes are very loud, but they’re up in the atmosphere. They could be happening 30 kilometres away, but we’re still hearing a very large boom,” Menashe said.

Israeli authorities said 11 civilians had been killed as of Wednesday, including nine in an Iranian missile strike in Beit Shemesh.

Global Affairs Canada advised against travel to most countries in the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates and Israel.

Canadians in those countries were encouraged to shelter in place and leave at the earliest opportunity when commercial flights resume and it is safe to do so.

Ottawa encouraged Canadians in the Middle East to register with GAC to receive updates and travel advisories.

Riazuddin said he tried to register online, but the government’s website failed.

“Just that infrastructure and the capacity for our government to protect us and take care of us is questionable compared to the readiness and the response of someone like the UAE government here,” he said.

The federal government said it was addressing “technical difficulties” with the registration system owing to the extremely high volume of registrations.

» Winnipeg Free Press