Amazon confirms its UAE data centers were ‘directly struck’ by Iranian drones on Sunday

Tech giant Amazon says that two of its data centers in the United Arab Emirates were “directly struck” by drones, disrupting cloud services in parts of the Middle East.

A facility in Bahrain was also damaged by “a drone strike in close proximity,” the provider says in an update to its service updates dashboard.

A number of Gulf cities have been dealt collateral damage, hit by strikes and stray weaponry since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran, killing Iran’s supreme leader and other top officials.

“Due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, both affected regions have experienced physical impacts to infrastructure as a result of drone strikes,” Amazon says in the update.

“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.”

The company does not specify if any of its employees were injured in the drone strikes, and says they are working closely with local authorities while “prioritizing the safety of our personnel throughout our recovery efforts.”

Amazon Web Services is the world’s leading cloud computing provider, competing with rivals including Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud to offer infrastructure that underpins popular apps and websites, as well as powering generative AI.

It advises affected users to back up any critical data and switch to Amazon’s servers in other parts of the world.

On Sunday, Amazon reported one of its UAE data centers was struck by “objects,” without further specification, and warned users of unpredictable challenges.