Drone strikes damage Amazon data centers in UAE and Bahrain
Two Amazon data centers in the UAE and one in Bahrain were damaged in drone strikes on March 1, 2026, with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claiming responsibility. The attacks disrupted cloud services and banking applications across the region, highlighting the vulnerability of critical AI infrastructure to state-level military strikes.
What happened
On March 1, 2026, two Amazon data centers in the UAE were hit by drone strikes. A third Amazon facility in Bahrain was also damaged in the attacks.
According to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who claimed responsibility, the data centers were supporting enemy intelligence activities.
Reported impact
As a result of the attacks, Amazon services remained unavailable or disrupted for many people in the region, affecting cloud services, banking apps, and internet connectivity.
Index analysis
According to a director of the governance of AI programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, data centers are critical building blocks of AI capabilities at the national level and likely to be frequently targeted in future conflicts.
Hyperscaler data centers (facilities with 5,000+ servers) are particularly vulnerable to such attacks as targeting them can disrupt national banking and essential cloud services. Although Amazon uses 'Availability Zones' to migrate data during disasters, data centers lack the ability to ward off state-level air strikes despite having robust ground security.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.