TLDR
- AWS data centers in the UAE were struck by unidentified objects on Sunday, causing sparks and a fire
- Power was shut off by the fire department; a second UAE availability zone later reported a separate power issue
- AWS is also reporting power and connectivity problems at its Bahrain data center
- The incidents coincide with Iranian retaliatory strikes across the Gulf, though AWS has not confirmed a direct link
- AWS customers have been told to rely on services in other regions, with recovery expected to be “multiple hours away”
Amazon Web Services suffered a disruption to cloud services after unidentified objects struck one of its UAE data centers on Sunday, starting a fire and knocking out power.
THE FIRST CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE CASUALTY OF WAR
An Amazon Web Services data center in the UAE just got hit.
AWS confirmed that at approximately 4:30 AM PST on March 1, “objects struck” the facility in availability zone mec1-az2, creating sparks and igniting a fire. The UAE fire… pic.twitter.com/lz9DiWi7fm
— Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ (@shanaka86) March 2, 2026
The incident occurred at around 4:30 p.m. Dubai time. The local fire department shut off power to the facility to extinguish the blaze.
AWS described the event on its status page, saying “objects struck the data center, creating sparks and fire” at one of its UAE availability zones.
A second availability zone in the UAE was then hit by what AWS called a “localized power issue,” compounding the disruption in the region.
The cloud unit also reported power and connectivity problems at one of its zones in Bahrain.
AWS told customers to rely on its services in other regions while repairs were underway. The company said recovery was expected to be “multiple hours away.”
The outages came on the same day Iranian projectiles struck the UAE, part of a wider wave of retaliatory strikes across the Middle East following US and Israeli strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials.
Iran’s response spread across the region, with missile and drone attacks reported against US bases and allies in the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.
AWS has not confirmed or denied whether the UAE data center damage was directly connected to the Iranian strikes. An AWS spokesperson declined to comment when contacted.
AWS UAE Customers Affected
Known AWS customers in the UAE include Al Ghurair Investment LLC and Dubai Islamic Bank.
AWS operates 123 availability zones across 39 regions globally, giving it a broad geographic footprint — though that didn’t fully insulate the company from disruption in this case.
Recovery Still Underway
The company reported some recovery progress earlier on Monday but later walked that back, again directing customers to other regions.
As of Monday morning Dubai time, both UAE availability zones and one Bahrain zone remained impacted.
Amazon stock (AMZN) was up 1.00% as of the latest update.
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