A drone hit the passenger terminal at Nakhchivan International Airport in Azerbaijan, injuring two civilians and prompting a sharp confrontation between Baku and Tehran over responsibility for the attack. Azerbaijani officials said another unmanned aircraft came down near a school in Shakarabad, a village close to the Iranian border.
Footage reviewed by Euronews showed an aircraft approaching the airport, an explosion at the site, damage to the main terminal and emergency personnel responding afterward. The available evidence did not establish independently who controlled the drones, while the governments of Azerbaijan and Iran issued directly conflicting accounts.
Azerbaijan said the aircraft originated in Iran. President Ilham Aliyev described the incident as terrorism against his country and demanded an explanation, an apology and accountability for those involved. He also said Azerbaijan's armed forces had moved to full combat readiness. The foreign ministry summoned Iran's ambassador as the dispute escalated.
Iran's general staff rejected the allegation that its forces had sent a drone toward Azerbaijan. That denial was relayed by Iranian state media. Azerbaijan's defence ministry responded that its monitoring systems had tracked four unmanned aircraft that it attributed to the Iranian armed forces moving toward the Nakhchivan region. Baku said Tehran's denial was unacceptable and renewed its demand for an apology and punishment of those responsible.
The strike brought regional hostilities onto the territory of a country bordering Iran. Nakhchivan is an Azerbaijani exclave separated from the rest of Azerbaijan and situated beside Iran, making the airport and nearby communities especially exposed to spillover from conflict. No deaths were reported in the supplied account, and the two injuries were described as civilian. The report did not provide further information on their condition.
Turkey's foreign ministry condemned the attacks and called for them to stop immediately. Ankara also reiterated its support for Azerbaijan, its close regional partner.
The competing official narratives left attribution disputed as of the event date. Azerbaijan based its position on technical monitoring and the observed path of the aircraft, while Iran denied that its armed forces carried out the operation. The physical damage and injuries were documented in the reporting, but no independent forensic assessment of the drones was included. The incident therefore combined a confirmed strike and civilian harm with an unresolved question over command responsibility.
The airport episode also had consequences beyond immediate repairs. Moving the armed forces to a heightened state and summoning an ambassador turned the impact into both a security alert and a diplomatic confrontation. Without a shared investigation or accepted technical findings, further official statements could deepen tensions between the neighbouring states.
