Iranian State Media Claims Deliberate Drone Strikes on AWS Data Centers
March 6, 2026
A news agency affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has asserted that recent drone strikes on three Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers in the Gulf were intentional, marking a significant escalation in the targeting of critical digital infrastructure amid ongoing regional hostilities. The incident underscores the growing vulnerability of global cloud platforms to physical attacks in conflict zones, with potential ramifications for international businesses and government operations reliant on these services.
According to statements made on Telegram by Iran’s Fars News Agency and first reported by The Register, the attacks on Sunday, March 1, were conducted because the facilities were “supporting the enemy’s military and intelligence activities.” The claims have not been independently verified. The strikes directly hit two AWS facilities in the United Arab Emirates and a third in Bahrain, where a drone strike “in close proximity” caused damage. The Bahrain site also hosts AWS’s Middle Eastern satellite ground station, described by Fars as the largest US data center in the region.
The attacks have caused significant outages in AWS’s ME-CENTRAL-1 and ME-SOUTH-1 cloud regions. Fars claimed the operations “dealt a serious blow to the enemy’s technological and information infrastructure,” resulting in “power outages, fires, and structural damage.” AWS has acknowledged severe damage, indicating full service restoration will take time. However, both regions remain partially online, with the UAE region operating a single Availability Zone. AWS has recommended customers migrate workloads to other regions away from the conflict.
The targeting of AWS infrastructure carries profound implications for the cloud and data center industry, highlighting a new front in modern warfare where civilian-operated, hyperscale data centers become strategic assets. AWS is a key provider for the US Department of Defense, military contractors, and numerous global enterprises, making its resilience a matter of broad economic and security concern. In a tit-for-tat dynamic, US and Israeli forces subsequently targeted two Iranian data centers, though it is unclear if these strikes were direct retaliation or part of a broader campaign to degrade critical infrastructure.
The conflict began with coordinated US-Israeli attacks on Iranian targets on February 28, prompting Iranian retaliatory strikes across Gulf states. The mutual targeting of data centers signals a dangerous expansion of the conflict into the realm of global information technology, risking widespread disruption beyond the immediate warzone.
Source: datacenterdynamics
