Drones from Iran crashed and exploded in Azerbaijan on Thursday, triggering an immediate warning that the country “reserves the right to take retaliatory measures.”
The strikes which hit the oil-rich ex-Soviet republic risk widening the conflict, after one drone struck near an airport in Nakhchivan causing a blaze while another came down beside a school.
The airport lies some 10 kilometers from the Iranian border.
The city is the capital of a strategically sensitive Azerbaijani exclave, separate from the rest of the country and sandwiched between Iran, Armenia and Turkey.
Azerbaijan has purchased weapons from Israel and engages in intelligence cooperation. Tehran views it as an Israeli watchtower on Iran’s northern border.
The country’s foreign ministry said: ‘Around noon, drone attacks were carried out on the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan from the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.’
‘One drone fell on the airport terminal building, and another one landed near a school building in the village of Shekarabad.
‘We strongly condemn these drone attacks launched from the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which damaged the airport building and injured two civilians.’
At around midday on 5 March, drone attacks were carried out against the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of the Republic of Azerbaijan from the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
One drone struck the terminal building of the airport in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic,… pic.twitter.com/0UxnmoyJpw— Ali Alizada 🇦🇿 (@Ali_F_Alizada) March 5, 2026
The Iranian ambassador was summoned for ‘a strong protest.’
Azerbaijan is the 12th state hit by Iran since strikes begun on Feb. 28 and the tenth Muslim state. Iran has not acknowledged targeting Azerbaijan, but its attacks have spread erratically across the region as the war has gone on.
A day earlier, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev had attended the Iranian embassy in the capital Baku to pay tribute to slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
