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Belgium’s Brussels and Liege airports were forced to shut down twice due to mysterious drone sightings on Tuesday.

Belgium’s air traffic was severely disrupted after drone sightings forced two major airports to temporarily suspend operations as a security precaution.

A drone was first spotted near Brussels airport at 8pm (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday evening, followed by another incident at the nearby Liege airport, one of Europe’s largest cargo airports, according to Belgium’s public broadcaster RTBF.

Both airports suspended operations for an hour and reopened at 9pm (20:00 GMT), only to shut down again at 10pm (21:00 GMT) after a second sighting, RTBF said. Both airports resumed normal operations at 11pm (22:00 GMT).

Brussels airport said that the shutdowns may still impact air traffic on Wednesday in a notice on its website.

“Following drone sightings on Tuesday evening, flight operations at Brussels Airport were suspended for safety reasons,” the notice said. “This disruption has led to delays and some flight cancellations and might still impact flight operations on Wednesday morning.”

Flight Aware, a US-based flight tracking website, counted 59 cancelled and 43 delayed flights at Brussels airport on Tuesday. Some flights were also diverted to nearby airports, according to RTBF.

Authorities have not released limited information about the drone sightings, but Minister of the Interior Bernard Quintin said that an investigation was under way, according to RTBF.

“We cannot accept that our airports are disrupted by unauthorised drone flights. This requires a coordinated, national response,” he said.

The drone sightings in Brussels and Liege follow a similar incident on Saturday, when three unauthorised drones were spotted near a Belgian military base, according to Minister of Defence Theo Francken.

Francken said on X that he believed the incident was “not a simple flyover, but a clear command targeting [the] Kleine Brogel” airbase in northwest Belgium.

He said the drones were flying at a high altitude and could not be stopped with a drone jammer. They also evaded pursuit by a helicopter and police vehicle, he said.

Since September, Europe has been hit with a wave of mysterious drone sightings near civilian airports and military facilities in Denmark, Germany, and Norway.

Denmark’s intelligence service has linked the drone flights to Russia, and described them as a form of hybrid warfare intended to “put pressure on [Europe] without crossing the line into armed conflict in a traditional sense”, according to Reuters.

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Danish police said drone activity in Aalborg airspace similar to drones that shut down Copenhagen airport earlier this week.

Denmark’s Aalborg airport, which is used for commercial and military flights, was closed due to unidentified drones operating in its airspace, a closure that follows just days after the country’s main Copenhagen airport was forced to shut temporarily due to drone sightings.

Danish police said early on Thursday that “more than one” drone was sighted near Aalborg airport, which is located in northern Denmark, in the Jutland region, and is the country’s fourth-largest city by population.

Police said the drone sightings in Aalborg followed a similar pattern to the drones that halted flights at Copenhagen airport for four hours on Monday, when a number of large and unidentified drones were spotted near what is one of Scandinavia’s busiest airports.

The closure of Aalborg airport affected Denmark’s armed forces because it is used as a military base, police said.

“It is too early to say what the goal of the drones is and who is the actor behind,” a police official told the Reuters news agency, adding that authorities would take down the drones if possible.

The Danish armed forces said they were assisting local and national police with the investigation, but declined to comment further.

Police said later on Thursday morning that the drones had left Aalborg airspace but that drones were also reported in the vicinity of airports in the towns of Esbjerg, Sonderborg and Skrydstrup in the west of the country.

Fighter Wing Skrydstrup in southern Jutland is the base for Denmark’s F-16 and F-35 fighter jets.

De uidentificerede droner som blev observeret i det nordjyske, befinder sig ikke længere over luftrummet ved Aalborg Lufthavn. En intens efterforskning er gået i gang, og politiet beder alle med oplysninger i sagen henvende sig på telefon 114. #politidk https://t.co/sU3Azw8amD

— Nordjyllands Politi (@NjylPoliti) September 25, 2025

Translation: The unidentified drones that were observed in northern Jutland are no longer in the airspace over Aalborg airport. An intensive investigation has been launched, and the police ask everyone with information about the case to contact them on phone 114.

Northern Jutland police told reporters that “more than one drone” had been sighted near Aalborg airport, and they were flying with lights on.

The drones were first sighted at about 9:44pm local time [19:44 GMT] on Wednesday, according to police, and remained in the airspace for several hours.

Eurocontrol, which oversees European air traffic control, said arrivals and departures at Aalborg airport would be at a “zero rate” until 04:00 GMT on Thursday due to drone activity in the vicinity.

Northern Jutland police said they could not specify the type of drones or whether they were the same as the ones flying over Copenhagen airport on Monday.

Authorities in Denmark said the incident at Copenhagen airport was the most serious attack yet on its critical infrastructure and linked it to a series of suspected Russian drone incursions and other disruptions across Europe.

Authorities in Norway also shut the airspace at Oslo airport for three hours on Monday evening after a drone was sighted.

Speaking on Tuesday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she “cannot reject in any way that it could be Russia” that was behind the Copenhagen airport incident.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said on social media that “while the facts are still being established, it is clear we are witnessing a pattern of persistent contestation at our borders”.

“Our critical infrastructure is at risk,” she said. “And Europe will respond to this threat with strength and determination.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called any allegations linking Russia to the drones “unfounded”, saying that Russian “aircraft are guided by international regulations in all their flights and do not violate them in any way”.

Earlier this month, Poland closed four of its airports, including one in its capital, Warsaw, after Russian drones repeatedly violated Polish airspace, according to the Polish military.

NATO members have committed to increasing the defence of their borders while reconfirming their allegiance in the aftermath of the drone incident in Poland.

At least 15 flights have been diverted as the airport remains closed until the situation is resolved, officials in Denmark say.

Authorities in Denmark have closed Copenhagen airport after unidentified drones were sighted nearby, causing about 15 flights to be diverted, police and airport officials told the AFP news agency.

“The airspace over Copenhagen airport has been closed since 8:30pm (18:30 GMT) due to two to three unidentified drones. No aircraft can take off or land,” airport spokeswoman Lise Agerley Kurstein said.

She said about 15 flights had been diverted to other airports.

Copenhagen police, meanwhile, said that “three or four big drones” had been observed flying over the airport.

“They are still flying back and forth, coming and going,” duty officer Anette Ostenfeldt told the AFP at 10:45pm (20:45 GMT), adding that police were at the airport investigating.

She could not say if the drones were military or civilian.

“But they are bigger than what you as a private individual can buy,” Ostenfeldt said.

Airport officials said the airport would remain closed until the situation was resolved. “We currently have no timeline for reopening,” Kurstein, the airport spokeswoman, said.

The incident comes as several European countries have reported violations of their airspace by Russia. Estonia said on Friday that three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets had entered Estonian airspace without permission.

During a Russian air strike on Ukraine the week before, Poland said about 19 drones flew into its airspace. The Polish Air Force and NATO allies shot down some of the unmanned vehicles, marking the first time Russian drones were downed over NATO territory since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Romania also registered a Russian drone in its airspace.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) convened on Monday to address the issue of airspace violations.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, denied the allegations that Moscow’s fighter jets had violated the airspace of neighbouring Estonia, saying that last Friday’s flight of three of its MiG-31 aircraft was done “strictly in accordance with international airspace regulations”.

The Russian Ministry of Defence echoed his remarks, saying that “objective monitoring” confirmed that the MiGs did not breach Estonian borders.

NATO allies at the UNSC meeting condemned Russia for violating the alliance’s airspace.

“Your reckless actions risk direct armed confrontation between NATO and Russia. Our alliance is defensive, but be under no illusion we stand ready to defend NATO’s skies and NATO’s territory,” the United Kingdom foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, said.

NATO’s North Atlantic Council will meet to discuss the issue on Tuesday.

Attack is first of its kind in months and occurs as PKK has begun disarmament, ending armed campaign against Turkiye.

An unidentified drone attack has killed a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and injured another near northern Iraq’s Sulaimaniyah, according to security sources and local officials.

The attack on Saturday was the first of its kind in months and occurred as the PKK has begun the first steps towards disarmament, ending its armed campaign against the Turkish state.

The drone attack hit a motorbike in the area, according to Iraqi outlet The New Region.

The mayor of Penjwen, in Sulaimaniyah, Hemin Ibrahim, confirmed that the drone targeted two people in a border village within the district, resulting in one dead, Kurdistan24 reported.

“The two individuals were riding a motorcycle when they were targeted. One was killed, and the other sustained injuries,” he told the news outlet.

Ibrahim told Kurdistan24 that the strike occurred Saturday morning.

No group or country has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

A small ceremony was held last Friday in Sulaimaniyah in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, where 20 to 30 PKK fighters destroyed their weapons rather than surrendering them to any government or authority.

The symbolic process was conducted under tight security and is expected to unfold throughout the summer.

The PKK announced in May that it would abandon its armed struggle in May, after 40 years of fighting.

For most of its history, the Kurdish group has been labelled as “terrorists” by Turkiye, the European Union and the United States.

More than 40,000 people were killed in the fighting between 1984 and 2024, with thousands of Kurds fleeing the violence in southeastern Turkiye into cities further north.

Turkiye’s leaders have welcomed the disarmament process, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stating that the ceremony last week marked an “important step towards our goal of a terror-free Turkiye”.

A Turkish parliamentary commission is expected to define the conditions for the reintegration of PKK fighters into civilian and political life in Turkiye.