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"I was shouting, 'my arm has been cut off!'" Saudi taekwondo athlete said, while speaking to the Kingdom's Ministry of Health, as she recounted what happened at Riyadh Airport.
Saudi Arabia’s King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh faced back-to-back fatal attacks over the weekend, with Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis claiming strikes that killed 14 people and injured hundreds on Saturday and Sunday.
Sabah Al Assiri, who has multiple accolades in her sport — nationally and in the Gulf — was returning from a championship when she found herself to be at the heart of the regional conflict.
Recalling that fateful evening, she said that she remembers sitting down at the airport and asking her father if they should go for a walk. Her father, however, refuses by saying that they were set to board their flight soon.
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She then remembers holding up her phone and looking at it, only to see it "fly away" as an explosion took place.
All she knew in the moment, she said, was that she wanted to protect herself.
Using her arm to shield herself, she felt something pierce through her arm. Upon opening her eyes, Al Assiri saw that her arm had been torn open. She then ran out — one of the first people to get to safety.
Now, doctors have sewed her bones back together in the first surgery. She will also have two more surgeries. "Inshallah I'll be treated and will come back stronger. Nothing stops us".
Her father, too, warmly spoke to the authority. "What happened, happened," he said, while thanking God that she managed to bring home the Gold medal in the championship she was returning home from.
Intensified fighting
Al Assiri was among 309 people who were hurt in the deadly strike on King Khalid International Airport. The attack and following targeting of the Saudi aviation hub, led to widespread tarvel disruptions as operations at the airport were suspended.
Attacks on Saudi Arabia by the Houthis, who claimed responsibility for October 10 strike, intensified following recent territorial gains by the Iran-backed group in neighbouring Yemen. Saudi Arabia has vowed to respond decisively to the attacks.
On October 13, it targeted an oil site in the Yemeni capital Sanaa. The Saudi-led Coalition fighting Houthis in Yemen said that it attacked the fuel depot and other sites in an operation aimed at "neutralising the capabilities of Houthis" to threaten Saudi Arabia, Yemen and international waterways.
The intensified fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis is seen as a spillover of the wider US-Iran conflict, now in its eighth month.