SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Since the start of the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran, an estimated 100,000 people have fled the capital city of Tehran, according to the World Health Organization. Some Iranians are leaving their country just as others are trying to get back in, as NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports.
(CROSSTALK)
RUTH SHERLOCK, BYLINE: At this remote border crossing from Northern Iran, surrounded by snow-capped mountains, families arrive into Turkey looking exhausted and pale from all that they've lived through this past week.
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SHERLOCK: Many are afraid to speak with us. The Iranian regime has sent texts to phones threatening those who talk with foreign journalists. But this man, without giving his name for fear of the regime, describes these days of war.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Bad injuries, night bombing - terrifying. Children killed at school bombing.
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SHERLOCK: "Night bombing. It was terrifying," he says.
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SHERLOCK: A mother and her two teenage daughters arrive with heavy suitcases and their two small dogs.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Farsi).
SHERLOCK: "The dogs have been so scared the whole week," she says. "They've been hiding under beds from the airstrikes."
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SHERLOCK: They board a minibus, and from there, they speak with us for a few minutes without giving their names.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Through interpreter) And last night in Tehran, I was just trembling the whole night. They were bombing to our right, to our left, each side. It is horrible. It is just horrible. I can't describe it.
SHERLOCK: They say many, many civilians are dying in these American and Israeli airstrikes on government targets in densely-packed neighborhoods.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Farsi).
SHERLOCK: "People just passing by these buildings that are bombed are getting caught in the strikes," the mother says, "and ordinary homes are getting hit."
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Farsi).
SHERLOCK: Her daughter adds, "the hospitals are full."
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Farsi).
SHERLOCK: There's something particularly poignant about people boarding the buses here on the border at this moment when people are leaving their country, not knowing - for many - when they're going to go back, and also thinking of all the people that are being left behind, all the people that they love that are still there, still in danger.
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SHERLOCK: Dozens of sparrows flit around at this border crossing with a country that has seen so much history. The 1979 revolution against Iran's shah that brought to power this clerical regime, sanctions, the Iran-Iraq war that saw tens of thousands of Iranians killed.
MARYAM: (Speaking Farsi).
SHERLOCK: "And now everyone is using this war for their own interests," says Maryam (ph), a lady with white hair and a pearl white coat.
MARYAM: (Speaking Farsi).
SHERLOCK: "One group abused their power for 47 years, and now another group is looking to do the same," she says. Others we spoke with, though, are determined that the Iranian regime has to end.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Speaking Farsi).
SHERLOCK: This younger woman tells us the government attacks on protesters that killed thousands in January during nationwide protests was the final straw in years of repression. She says, "nobody wants to be bombarded by a foreign power."
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Speaking Farsi).
SHERLOCK: But she says, "after this, she would rather die than see this regime remain." There are, though, many vested interests in the survival of the government of this oil-rich nation. The regime has a hardcore base of supporters.
(SOUNDBITE OF ROLLING SUITCASE)
SHERLOCK: Hi.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: Hi.
SHERLOCK: How are you?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: Thank you very much.
SHERLOCK: Are you going inside?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: Yeah.
SHERLOCK: We meet two of them - slickly dressed men, one in Chanel sunglasses, another in expensive, pressed trousers. They work in the oil industry and were on a business trip when the war started. Now they're crossing back into Iran.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: We should defense our country, my country. This is my land.
SHERLOCK: The other man tells me the United States and Israel will get bogged down in this war.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: I think this war will be like a mud for Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu.
SHERLOCK: Like Mud.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: Like mud.
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SHERLOCK: Many of the people on this border are here to cross into Iran, even now during the war.
AHMED REZA: I don't have any connection to my family.
SHERLOCK: With communications largely down, Ahmed Reza (ph), an engineer who lives abroad for work, hasn't been able to hear from his family.
REZA: I really worry about my family.
SHERLOCK: Yeah.
REZA: I have to come back to my country.
SHERLOCK: As airstrikes hit across Iran, he faces a long and dangerous journey.
Oh, gosh. You're very brave.
REZA: Oh, thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF ROLLING SUITCASE)
SHERLOCK: All Iranians are brave now, he tells me, as he wheels his suitcase to the gate to cross. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Turkey on the border with Iran.
(SOUNDBITE OF SKULI SVERRISSON'S "SWEET EARTH") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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