Live Updates: Iranian Drones Fall in Azerbaijan as Crisis Spills Beyond Mideast

Iran said its strikes were in self-defense and denied firing at Turkey, a day after NATO forces shot down a ballistic missile headed to Turkish airspace. LiveUpdated March 5, 2026, 8:24 a.m. ETLive Updates: Iranian Drones Fall in Azerbaijan as Crisis Spills Beyond MideastIran said its strikes were in self-defense and denied firing at Turkey, a day after NATO forces shot down a ballistic missile headed to Turkish airspace.Share full articleBaabda, LebanonThe aftermath of an overnight airstrike on a hotel in a suburb of Beirut.Diego Ibarra Sánchez for The New York TimesTehranIran’s capital on Thursday. The Red Crescent Society said the death toll in Iran had risen to 787 since the start of the attacks last week.Arash Khamooshi for The New York TimesNear Lod, IsraelThe site of a missile strike in central Israel on Thursday. Amit Elkayam for The New York TimesBaabda, LebanonOutgoing projectiles streaking across the skyline of Beirut's southern suburbs early Thursday.ReutersTehranSmoke after a U.S.-Israel airstrike on Wednesday. Arash Khamooshi for The New York TimesTehranRubble from a building damaged in U.S.-Israel airstrikes.Arash Khamooshi for The New York TimesTehranPraying at the site of a police station that was destroyed.Arash Khamooshi for The New York TimesGalle, Sri LankaThe bodies of Iranian sailors who died when their warship was torpedoed in the Indian Ocean.Eranga Jayawardene/Associated PressDortyol, TurkeyIhlas, a private Turkish news agency, released images of what it described as debris of a NATO interceptor missile.Ihlas News Agency, via ReutersTehranDriving by a police station that was destroyed in a strike.Arash Khamooshi for The New York TimesNorthern IsraelIsraeli tanks near the border with Lebanon.Ariel Schalit/Associated PressFujairah, United Arab EmiratesA fire following an explosion in the Fujairah industrial zone.Fadel Senna/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesTehranA guard looking at damage at the Gandhi Hospital.Arash Khamooshi for The New York TimesTehran The Golestan Palace, damaged by a nearby strike, in a photograph taken on a government media tour on Tuesday.Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times PinnedYan ZhuangLeily Nikounazar and Aurelien BreedenHere is the latest.Two Iranian drones fell into Azerbaijan on Thursday, and more Iranian strikes were reported in Israel and Iraq, the latest signs of a broadening regional conflict that began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran last week.Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said that the two drones had landed in Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani exclave on Iran’s northern border, injuring two civilians. Iran’s armed forces denied firing drones at Azerbaijan and blamed the action on Israel.The United States and Israel pressed ahead with strikes on Iran in a conflict that has killed hundreds so far, mainly in Iran. The U.S. military’s Central Command said that it was “finding and destroying” Iran’s mobile missile launchers, and the Israeli military announced another wave of strikes on Tehran and on Iran’s ballistic missile infrastructure, as well as on Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group in Lebanon.Iran launched a new salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on Thursday morning, the military said. And it struck again at pro-American Kurdish forces in neighboring Iraq, hitting a base belonging to one of the groups, the Komala Party, according to an official from the group who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.Iran for days has targeted the Kurdish forces, which it views as terrorist groups, as Iraqi officials and senior members of the forces say they are preparing armed units that could enter Iran. Iran’s intelligence ministry said in a statement on Thursday that Iranian forces had destroyed facilities belonging to “separatist terrorist groups” on Iran’s western border.Iran has said its strikes, begun in retaliation to the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday, are in self-defense. But the targets Iran has hit in the Persian Gulf in recent days have included American embassies, energy installations, airports and resort hotels. Iran on Thursday denied Turkey’s claim that it had fired a missile toward Turkish airspace a day earlier. Turkey said on Wednesday that NATO had shot down the missile. Mark Rutte, NATO’s secretary-general, told Reuters on Thursday that the alliance did not need to activate its mutual defense clause over the episode but added that NATO ⁠supported the U.S. military campaign, saying that Iran was “close to ​becoming a threat to Europe as well.”European nations accelerated plans to deploy military assets in the region to protect their citizens and interests, with Italy saying that it was sending air defense support to Gulf countries to protect against Iranian strikes. Some European leaders have backed President Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran, while others have been more cautious or critical.Here’s what else we’re covering:Iranian ship: Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, accused the United States of an “atrocity at sea” after a torpedo launched from a U.S. Navy submarine sank