MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Israel and the U.S. are continuing to hit Iran on the sixth day of the war. Iran says the United States will, quote, "bitterly regret" torpedoing one of its warships yesterday in the Indian Ocean in an attack that killed at least 87 people.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Here's a few updates overnight. Israel has tracked multiple incoming missile attacks. Air sirens blared overnight and into this morning in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. All this as the war continues to spread across the region. Israeli attacks continue in Lebanon, and Iranian strikes are causing turmoil in numerous Gulf countries.
MARTIN: NPR's Ruth Sherlock is in Turkey close to the border with Iran, where she's been speaking with Iranians coming across the border, and she's with us now. Ruth, hello. Thanks so much for joining us.
RUTH SHERLOCK, BYLINE: Hi. Good morning.
MARTIN: So as we said, you've been on the border with Iran. Tell us what you're seeing.
SHERLOCK: Well, Michel, people are coming out traumatized. You know, Iran isn't letting Western journalists into the country, but speaking with Iranians here on the border, it really drives home the horror of this war for civilians. Everyone was too scared to give their name as speaking with Western media has gotten people arrested in Iran. This man talked about his journey out.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Very dangerous. Night bombing. Very dangerous everywhere (ph).
SHERLOCK: It's a little hard to hear, but he's saying there was bombing through the night as he traveled, children killed in Iran. He says he and his family have come to Turkey for shelter. I also spoke with a doctor from Tehran who described the terror of being engulfed in smoke and feeling the backblast of a strike that hit close to her car on the journey out. She says she's also witnessing many, many civilian casualties from these strikes. You know, these are densely packed neighborhoods, and she says residential buildings are also getting hit. She's been treating civilians with horrific injuries, she says.
And despite all this, I saw a large number of people heading back into Iran. Communications are largely down in the country, and many people just said that they couldn't cope with not knowing if their families were OK and would rather be with them despite the danger.
MARTIN: Wow, that's interesting. So tell us more about what these people who are heading back are heading back into.
SHERLOCK: Well, there's continued heavy bombardment by Israeli and U.S. forces on Tehran and other cities. And another thing we're watching closely is Iran's western border with Iraq. Turkey and Iran are responding to reports that Iranian Kurdish militias have consulted with the United States in recent days about possible attacks against the Iranian regime. Turkey's saying it's watching closely. Iran saying it's targeting what it called separatist militias in that region that it said intended to act against security forces there.
MARTIN: OK, what it called separatist militias. I see. So beyond Iran, there are also still major concerns about the Gulf region being drawn into the conflict.
SHERLOCK: That's right. You know, Iran saying to the Gulf countries that its strikes against them there are actually aimed at hitting U.S. military bases and assets there. But the attacks are having this crippling effect on Gulf economies, and they've paralyzed the energy sector. Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed Al Thani, told Iran's foreign minister yesterday Qatar prefers diplomacy, but this aggression, he said, cannot go unanswered. Meanwhile, there's also reports of a new attack off the coast of Kuwait, and this would mean an expansion of the area where commercial shipping is also in danger.
MARTIN: That is Ruth Sherlock near Turkey's border with Iran. Ruth, thank you so much.
SHERLOCK: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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