As airstrikes intensify, Iranians are flocking to the borders

Sandwiched between the barren mountains straddling the nearly 600-kilometre-long border between Iran and Turkey, families pull suitcases and push strollers through a heavily secured gate toward waiting taxis and vans.

Some are fleeing Iran to escape the intensifying airstrikes while others are trying to enter the country to reunite with families after days of internet blackouts made it impossible to contact them.

With Iranian airspace closed, they have had to resort to remote border crossings. 

"We got to go [to Iran] and be with our family … but maybe we will leave again," said Ali Sadra Souf, who was trying to cross into Iran at the Kapikoy-Razi border crossing. 

Souf was vacationing in Turkey when Israel launched airstrikes against Iran on June 13. On Sunday — just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump thrust Washington directly into the war with attacks on three Iranian nuclear sites — he was making his way back home with his mother. 

Souf was comfortable having his image and full name published, but most of the Iranians CBC News spoke with asked that their names be kept confidential or that they only be identified by their first name because they feared possible repercussions for speaking about the government. 

Iran is ruled by a strict theocratic regime that took power after the revolution in 1979. Inside the country, opposition is met with stiff and sometimes violent repression. 

People have been killed or imprisoned for even the slightest signs of protest. Independent media isn't tolerated, and the state has ultimate control over the narrative it projects beyond Iran's borders. 

The country of around 90 million is politically divided, and those who spoke to CBC News expressed differing opinions about who is ultimately to blame for the escalating tensions and where the conflict might lead. 

However, they are united by the fact that their lives have been disrupted — and even endangered — by the airstrikes, which the Israeli government says are precisely directed at military sites and targets tied to the Iranian regime. 

At the same border crossing, a 25-year-old Iranian told CBC News that in the first few days of Israel's air campaign, the situation was terrible in the capital, Tehran. 

"It was so bad … I heard between 10 to 15 explosions around my home," he said. 

The man, who was on his way to Toronto after recently receiving a work visa, didn't want his name published because he feared that he could face retribution when he eventually returns to visit his family. 

When asked what Iranians thought about the prospect that the conflict could lead to a regime change, he chose his words carefully.