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AWS facilities damaged in drone attacks
Amazon Web Services (AWS) confirmed on Monday that drones struck three of its cloud computing centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on Sunday, following U.S. and Israeli military actions against Iran over the weekend.
Timeline of the incidents
Early Sunday, AWS reported that unidentified objects had struck a data center in the UAE, causing sparks and fire. Later that day, the company announced it was investigating power and connectivity disruptions at a facility in Bahrain.
(10:30 local time) AWS issued an update confirming that drone strikes were responsible for the outages, with two UAE sites hit directly and a Bahrain facility damaged by a nearby explosion.
Extent of the damage
The attacks caused structural harm to buildings, interrupted power supplies, and triggered fires that required suppression efforts. Water used to extinguish the flames added to the destruction in some areas.
"The physical damage is significant, and restoring full service will take time," AWS stated.
The company is working to repair the sites but warned customers that recovery efforts may be prolonged due to the severity of the damage.
Customer advisories
AWS urged clients using its Middle East services to back up their data and consider shifting operations to alternative global locations. The company also cautioned that the broader regional security situation remains volatile.
"The operating environment in the Middle East is currently unpredictable," an AWS spokesperson said.
Regional tensions escalate
The strikes follow retaliatory drone and missile attacks by Iran against U.S. bases and allied nations, including the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. U.S. President Donald Trump indicated that military operations against Iran could continue for four to five weeks-or potentially much longer.
These incidents underscore the growing risks to critical digital infrastructure amid rising geopolitical conflicts.
