Amazon Web Services (AWS) is experiencing a major outage in the Middle East after physical attacks damaged its data centers. Objects, later confirmed to be drones, struck facilities in the UAE, causing sparks, fire, and structural damage, while a nearby strike impacted infrastructure in Bahrain.
AWS states recovery will take at least a day, requiring repairs to power and cooling systems, and advises customers to use disaster recovery plans and alternate regions. The outage follows Iranian retaliatory attacks against US-allied targets in the region, including the UAE, after US and Israeli strikes inside Iran.
The main topics covered are the AWS service outage, the physical damage from drone strikes to data centers, the ongoing conflict between Iran and US/Israeli allies, and the expected recovery timeline.
Amazon’s cloud services are down in some of the Middle East after “objects” hit data centers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) causing “sparks and fire.” Around 60 services tied to AWS are down in the region, affecting web traffic in the UAE and Bahrain. The outage comes following Iranian attacks on the UAE as retaliation for US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
Customers in Bahrain and the UAE began to report outages tied to the mec1-az2 and mec1-az3 clusters in AWS’ ME-CENTRAL-1 Region on March 1 after Iranian ballistic missiles and drones struck targets in and around Dubai. Amazon did not confirm that AWS was down in the Middle East due to an Iranian attack and instead referred 404 Media to its online dashboard.
“At around 4:30 AM PST, one of our Availability Zones (mec1-az2) was impacted by objects that struck the data center, creating sparks and fire,” AWS said on its health dashboard. “The fire department shut off power to the facility and generators as they worked to put out the fire. We are still awaiting permission to turn the power back on, and once we have, we will ensure we restore power and connectivity safely. It will take several hours to restore connectivity to the impacted AZ.”
As of this morning at 9:22 AM ET, the damage had spread. “We are expecting recovery to take at least a day, as it requires repair of facilities, cooling and power systems, coordination with local authorities, and careful assessment to ensure the safety of our operators,” AWS said. “We recommend customers enact their disaster recovery plans and recover from remote backups into alternate AWS Regions, ideally in Europe.”
Amazon later shared more information about the attack and confirmed it was the result of drones. “Due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, both affected regions have experienced physical impacts to infrastructure as a result of drone strikes. In the UAE, two of our facilities were directly struck, while in Bahrain, a drone strike in close proximity to one of our facilities caused physical impacts to our infrastructure,” it said. “These strikes have caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage. We are working closely with local authorities and prioritizing the safety of our personnel throughout our recovery efforts.”
On Saturday, the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury and struck targets inside of Iran, killing several political and military leaders including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s Supreme Leader. In retaliation, Iran launched drone and missile attacks against Israel and multiple US-allied targets in the Middle East.
According to the Emirati defense forces, Iran attacked the country with two cruise missiles, 165 ballistic missiles, and more than 540 drones. The UAE and its capital city Dubai are often seen as a safe and stable destination in the Middle East. The country hosts wealthy people from across the region and influencers from across the world. Footage shared on social media showed the neon towers of the UAE backlit by missiles and munitions.
It’s unclear how long it will take for Amazon to restore services to the region or how far the damage will spread. Amazon’s dashboard is promising to bring things back up in “at least a day” but the war is far from over. Iran continues to strike targets in the Middle East and it’s unclear what America’s plan of attack is or how long this war might grind on.
Update 2/2/26: This story has been updated with more specifics about the attack from Amazon.
Meridiano
