Azerbaijan sued CNN for defamation over a bombshell report claiming that Israel had operated drone and commando teams against Iran out of its territory.

In June, CNN published a report claiming that dozens of Mossad operatives and Israeli commandos were operating out of a secret base in southern Azerbaijan, through which they carried out intelligence gathering missions and even drone assassinations. Baku vehemently denied the report at the time, and stepped up its denials this week, filing a defamation lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Delaware.