Dragging two suitcases and wearing a rucksack, Homa looked exhausted after crossing the Turkish border following a long trip from Tehran where she'd been on holiday when the Israel-Iran war began.

The 40-year-old Iranian who works in Canada as a business analyst was stranded when Iran closed its airspace after Israel launched a massive pre-dawn bombing campaign on Friday and the Islamic republic struck back, in their most intense confrontation in history.

Homa, who didn't give her surname, quickly looked for an alternative way out, eventually finding a bus to Iran's northwestern border with Turkey, a journey of 850 kilometres (530 miles).

After enduring four days of conflict, she left Tehran at 8:00 pm on Tuesday, reaching the Kapikoy border crossing into the eastern Turkish province of Van on Wednesday afternoon.

Many people were leaving Tehran, like her own family who drove to Shahriar, a town some 30 kilometres to the west on a journey that took "hours, because of the heavy traffic," she said.

"They're not safe,........

© Al Monitor