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Amazon says drone strikes damaged 3 facilities in UAE and Bahrain
CNBC· 2026-03-03 01:51
Core Insights - Amazon Web Services (AWS) experienced significant disruptions due to drone strikes on its data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, resulting in structural damage and service outages [2][3]. Group 1: Incident Details - The drone strikes occurred on Sunday morning, causing "sparks and fire" at the UAE data centers and impacting power and connectivity at the Bahrain facility [2]. - AWS confirmed that two facilities in the UAE were directly struck, while a nearby strike in Bahrain caused physical impacts to its infrastructure [2]. - The company reported that the strikes led to structural damage, disrupted power delivery, and necessitated fire suppression activities, which resulted in additional water damage [2]. Group 2: Recovery Efforts - AWS is actively working to restore service in the affected areas, although recovery is expected to be prolonged due to the extent of the physical damage [2][3]. - While repairing the data centers, AWS is also focused on restoring data access and service availability in the regions, which may not require the facilities to be fully operational [3]. - The company warned that instability in the Middle East could lead to unpredictable operations, advising customers to back up data or consider migrating workloads to other AWS regions [3]. Group 3: Broader Implications - In addition to AWS's issues, Amazon has warned customers of potential delivery delays in the Middle East due to ongoing regional conflicts, specifically citing missile and drone attacks from Iran in response to U.S.-Israeli actions [4]. - Notices were added to Amazon's marketplaces in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the UAE, alerting customers to "extended delivery time in your area" [4].