Azerbaijan says four injured by Iranian drones, vows to retaliate

By Nailia Bagirova and Lucy Papachristou

BAKU, March 5 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan was preparing unspecified retaliatory measures on Thursday after it said four Iranian drones had crossed its border and injured four people in the Nakhchivan exclave, raising concerns about further spillover from the conflict in the Middle East.

“We will not tolerate this unprovoked act of terror and aggression against Azerbaijan. Our Armed Forces have been instructed to prepare and implement appropriate retaliatory measures,” President Ilham Aliyev told a meeting of his Security Council.

“We are ready to demonstrate our strength against any hostile force – and they should not forget this in Iran,” he said.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi denied that Tehran had targeted Nakhchivan.

“We do not attack our neighbouring countries,” he told Azerbaijani outlet AnewZ.

Azerbaijani authorities said one drone had fallen on the terminal building of Nakhchivan International Airport, which is about 10 km (6 miles) across the border from Iran, and another drone landed close to a school building in a nearby village.

One was downed by the Azerbaijani army and another hit civilian infrastructure.

The four injured were taken to hospital, where they are in a stable condition, the Health Ministry in the landlocked exclave of Azerbaijan bordering Armenia, Iran and Turkey told Reuters.  

Video footage verified by Reuters showed black smoke rising near the airport and damage to the skylight inside the terminal building. Authorities said they were investigating the types of drones used.

CLOSING AIRSPACE

Azerbaijan said it was closing its southern airspace for 12 hours after the attack and also shuttering its border crossings with Iran for all cargo trucks, including transit shipments – choking off what is one of the shortest land routes connecting Iran to its ally Russia.

Azerbaijan’s land borders have been closed to travellers since 2020, but crossing is possible with special permission.

Since the U.S. and Israel began airstrikes against Iran on Saturday, more than 1,100 people have crossed from Iran into Azerbaijan via the Astara crossing on the Caspian Sea, a source close to the Baku government told Reuters on Wednesday.

Azerbaijan is a major oil and gas producer, mostly exporting energy to Turkey and Europe via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Any damage to its infrastructure could drive global energy prices even higher.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov condemned the attack in a phone call on Thursday with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araqchi, saying the incident violated international law and contributed to “increased tensions” in the region.

Araqchi also denied that Iran had attacked Nakhchivan and said Tehran would conduct an investigation, according to an Iranian Foreign Ministry statement.

Azerbaijan and Iran already have tense relations over Baku’s growing economic, energy and military ties to NATO member Turkey and to Israel. The escalating U.S.–Iran war risks touching off violence between the neighbours. Iran boasts a sizeable ethnic Azerbaijani population.

(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova in Baku; Writing by Lucy Papachristou in Tbilisi; Editing by Mark Trevelyan, Guy Faulconbridge, Andrei Khalip, Alexandra Hudson, Gareth Jones)