- Iran says drone strikes on Bahrain and UAE AWS facilities were intentional
- Amazon only noted “sparks and fire” caused by “objects”
- Iran says “structural damage” was also inflicted
Iran’s Fars News Agency has claimed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Crops (IRGC) deliberately targeted Amazon data centers in drone strikes, alleging the facilities supported US military and intelligence operations.
Two facilities in the UAE were reportedly affected earlier this week, with another Bahrain facility damaged by a nearby drone strike, bringing down parts of Amazon’s cloud services in the region.
Amazon only stated “objects” struck its UAE data center, causing “sparks and fire,” but the company did not directly link the incident to the ongoing conflict in the region.
Iran claims responsibility for UAE/Bahrain AWS outages
“This action was taken in order to identify the role of these centers in supporting the enemy’s military and intelligence activities,” Fars News Agency said in a Telegram post (translated via Google Translate).
“Two centers in the UAE were directly hit and one center in Bahrain also suffered serious physical damage,” it continues.
Amazon’s official update only speaks of power outages caused by the fire, and that it was waiting for permission to reconnect power in order to bring services back online. Fars also notes that “structural damage” and “serious physical damage” was inflicted.
TechRadar Pro has contacted Amazon to confirm these comments, but the company did not immediately respond.
Amazon isn’t the only company facing issues in the Middle East – Fars News Agency. “The targeting of Amazon and Microsoft in these operations has dealt a serious blow to the enemy’s technological and information infrastructure,” the Telegram post reads.
As for future plans, it’s unclear how the two companies will go about regional investments. AWS had committed to a $5.3 billion spend in Saudi Arabia to launch a new cloud region, while Microsoft is planning a much bigger $15.2 billion investment in the UAE between 2023 and 2029.
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