Amazon Web Services Data Centers Hit by Drone Strikes in UAE and Bahrain Amid Middle East Conflict

Summary

Amazon Web Services (AWS) confirmed Monday that three of its data centers in the Middle East were damaged by drone strikes over the weekend, causing significant service disruptions. Two facilities in the United Arab Emirates were directly struck by drones, while a third facility in Bahrain suffered damage from a nearby strike. The incidents, which occurred Sunday morning, resulted in structural damage, power disruptions, fires, and water damage from suppression efforts, taking multiple AWS services offline including EC2, S3, and DynamoDB.

The attacks are linked to ongoing military conflict in the Middle East, with AWS noting that Iran targeted the region with missiles and drones in response to U.S.-Israeli operations. The company initially reported "objects" hitting data centers causing "sparks and fire" before later acknowledging the drone strike connection. AWS has warned customers that recovery will be prolonged given the extent of physical damage, though the company is working to restore data access and service availability even while facilities remain offline.

AWS issued stark warnings about continued instability in the region, describing future operations as "unpredictable" and advising customers with workloads in affected areas to consider mitigation strategies. These include backing up data and potentially migrating workloads to other AWS regions. The incident also affected Amazon's e-commerce operations, with the company warning customers across Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the UAE of delivery delays due to the ongoing conflict.

• The attacks are connected to broader Middle East tensions, with Iran launching missiles and drones in response to U.S.-Israeli military actions
• Recovery is expected to be prolonged due to the nature of physical damage, though AWS is attempting to restore data access before facilities are fully operational