The United Nations has said an estimated 100,000 people left Tehran in the first two days of the US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 and March 1.
"In Iran, an estimated 100,000 people left Tehran in the first two days following the attacks," UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said in a situation report on Wednesday.
"Latest reports indicate no increase in cross-border movements linked to recent events. The situation at the Islam Qala border crossing with Afghanistan remains stable with no significant changes observed," it said.
Sparked by a massive US-Israeli attack that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the war has seen Tehran lash out with missile and drone strikes from Israel across the Gulf.
The strikes, launched on February 28, were carried out without congressional authorisation. The US Senate is scheduled to vote on Wednesday on a measure that could halt the offensive.
The conflict has since widened across the Middle East, with hundreds reported killed, including six US military personnel, as hostilities extend to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Israel, and the Persian Gulf.
Critics said the Trump administration has provided differing explanations for the offensive, at times describing it as a preemptive effort to weaken Iran’s military and nuclear capabilities, while at other times saying the strikes were necessary to protect American interests after Israel initiated its own offensive.
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, presented a somewhat different justification, saying the White House felt forced to strike Iran because its close ally, Israel, was determined to take action.
“It was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone – the United States or Israel, or anyone – they were going to respond, and respond against the United States,” Rubio told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Regional inferno
Wells Dixon, a senior attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, said after reviewing Trump’s reasoning that it reflects military goals.
“Those are military policy objectives,” said Dixon. “They are not a legal basis to launch an armed attack against another country.”
Sen. Tim Kaine said he supported US efforts to defend Israel during previous Iranian attacks, “but that’s a very different matter than the US engaging in the affirmative initiation of war.”
The war in Iran has rapidly escalated to Lebanon. Israel unleashed air strikes and a ground invasion across southern Lebanon and the Beirut suburbs, against Hezbollah, Iran's staunch ally, killing many and displacing thousands.
At the same time, Iranian drones and missiles further fanned the flames by hitting US bases in the Gulf, drawing the conflict into a multi-front regional inferno with no swift end in sight.
