Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev ordered his military to prepare strikes against Iran after drones hit an airport and a village in the Nakhchivan exclave, a landlocked territory separated from mainland Azerbaijan by Armenia, on March 5. Four civilians were wounded.
“Today a terrorist act was carried out from the Iranian side against the territory of Azerbaijan,” Aliyev said during an emergency Security Council meeting. He placed Azerbaijan’s armed forces on the highest mobilization level and warned Tehran against further provocations. “They should not test our strength. Those who did so in the past had their skulls crushed with our ‘Iron Fist.'”
BREAKING: Iranian drone hits Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan. pic.twitter.com/waWvQPYoF4
— Clash Report (@clashreport) March 5, 2026
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry stated that four unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) crossed into Nakhchivan from Iranian territory. One struck the terminal building at Nakhchivan International Airport, located roughly 10 kilometers from the border.
Another landed near a school in the village of Shakarabad while classes were underway. Azerbaijani air defenses disabled a third drone. The ministry demanded that Iran “cease their blatant denial, apologize for the incident, and have those responsible punished.”
Tehran rejected the accusations. Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi stated that Iran does not target neighboring countries. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi repeated the denial in a phone call with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov and accused Israel of launching the strike to damage Iran’s regional relationships.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador and dismissed the denial as unacceptable.
The strike came one day after Aliyev personally visited Iran’s embassy in Baku to express condolences over the death of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, killed during the opening U.S.-Israeli strikes on February 28. Aliyev called the attack “a grave example of ingratitude.”
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry condemned the strike and warned against spreading the ongoing conflict to third countries. Azerbaijan closed portions of its southern airspace for 12 hours following the incident.
