Drones Reach the Cloud… Strikes on Amazon Centers in the Gulf Disrupt Global Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) confirmed that two of its facilities in the United Arab Emirates were hit by drone strikes, resulting in significant damage to infrastructure and disruption of several of its core cloud services.

The company stated in remarks reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday that the attack targeted key data centers that are part of its regional infrastructure in the Gulf.

Bahrain within the Target Area

AWS indicated that a third facility in Bahrain was damaged due to a strike that occurred near the site, causing damage to the surrounding infrastructure and partially affecting technical operations.

Structural Damage and Power Outage

According to the company, the strikes caused direct structural damage to the buildings and power outages to the servers, leading to a temporary halt of several services. Fires broke out inside some centers, prompting the activation of water firefighting systems, which caused additional damage to sensitive technical equipment.

It confirmed that two “Availability Zones” went offline, impacting prominent services such as EC2, S3, DynamoDB, and other cloud applications relied upon by companies and institutions worldwide.

Unprecedented Escalation in Targeting Digital Infrastructure

The attack comes amid a wave of drone and missile strikes launched by Iran against several Gulf countries, in response to a U.S.-Israeli attack that resulted in the death of Iranian leader Ali Khamenei last Saturday.

This development represents a notable precedent, as it is the first time that data centers belonging to a major American technology company have been directly targeted in the context of military conflict, raising widespread questions about the transformation of digital infrastructure into a part of geopolitical confrontation arenas.