Azerbaijan says Iranian drones hit passenger terminal of airport
Iranian drones struck the passenger terminal of an airport in Azerbaijan, the latter's foreign ministry said, marking the first instance of the Israeli-US conflict with the country spilling over into Iran's northern neighbour.
The airport is located Nakhchivan near the border with Iran. The Azerbaijani foreign ministry said "retaliatory measures" were being planned.
Azerbaijani media said that "several more drones fell in other places".
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi quickly responded to the incident, saying Tehran did not target neighbouring countries and that the incident should be investigated.
Gharibabadi told Azerbaijani media that only countries hosting military bases of their enemies would be targeted.
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In a separate statement, Iran’s General Staff said Israel was responsible for the drone attack and carried it out to blame Iran.
Iran has a larger ethnic Azerbaijani population than Azerbaijan itself and its West Azerbaijan province borders the country.
Since Israel and the US began striking Iran on Saturday, hundreds have crossed from Iran into Azerbaijan through the Astara border crossing.
Azerbaijan has very close relations with Israel, which supplied combat drones and other military hardware that Baku used in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020.
Some Azerbaijani nationalists have called for the unification of Iran's Western Azerbaijan province, though the government has denied any ambitions itself and has sought to maintain cordial relations with its neighbour.
Since Israel and the US began attacking Iran on Saturday, the Islamic Republic has responded by launching attacks on US bases in a number of regional states, including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar.
An Iranian foreign ministry official told Middle East Eye on Wednesday that Israel was behind several of the drone strikes against Saudi Arabia and claimed that they were also responsible for at least one of the attacks on Oman.
"I can categorically say that some of the attacks were not carried out by us [Iran]," the official, who requested anonymity, said.
The official declined to say which of the strikes Israel was responsible for, but Saudi Arabia has been struck at least five times by drones and missiles, with the Prince Sultan Air Base, the Ras Tanura oil refinery, and the US embassy in Riyadh among the facilities targeted.
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