Military Drone Attacks in Bahrain and the UAE Destroy Stored Amazon Cloud Data

Amazon Web Services has lost customer files and digital tools stored in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The company says the information cannot be recovered.

The problems began six months ago when Iranian drones hit technology sites in the Middle East. The strikes happened in early March as an answer to military attacks by the United States and Israel against Iran.

Iran targeted countries in the Gulf that host American military forces. These targets included both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

In the United Arab Emirates, weapons hit two Amazon buildings directly. In Bahrain, an aerial weapon exploded close to a site and harmed the equipment inside.

The blasts broke building walls, cut electrical power, and triggered water systems meant to put out fires. The spraying water added more harm to the computing gear.

In the United Arab Emirates, the loss affects one specific computing zone called mec1-az2 out of three zones in that area. Amazon is still working on the other two parts, and it aims to replace the broken parts in the coming months.

The destruction in Bahrain was worse. A second zone suffered harm in April, which knocked the entire local network offline.

Amazon stated that the Bahrain damage crossed several zones and went beyond what its safety backup setup could survive. The company plans to offer its next update on Bahrain in early 2027.

Most users moved their systems out of both areas before the data was declared gone for good. Those customers used other stored copies or different tools to keep working.

Conflict in the area continues to grow, and data facilities in the Middle East may face more strikes in the future.