Amazon’s cloud computing arm has said that three of its facilities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain were damaged by drone strikes following US and Israeli attacks on Iran over the weekend.
The incidents took place on Sunday morning. At the time, Amazon Web Services (AWS) said that unidentified “objects” had struck one of its data centres in the UAE, causing sparks and a fire. On the same day, the company also reported power and connectivity problems at one of its facilities in Bahrain.
On Monday, AWS confirmed that the disruptions were caused by drone strikes.
According to the company, two facilities in the UAE were directly hit. In Bahrain, a drone strike near one of its sites caused physical damage to infrastructure.
AWS said the attacks led to structural damage and interrupted power supply to key systems. In some cases, fire suppression efforts were required, which also resulted in additional water damage.
The company said it is working to restore services as quickly as possible but cautioned that full recovery may take time due to the extent of the physical damage.
AWS also advised customers in the region to back up their data and consider shifting workloads to other AWS facilities worldwide as a precaution.
The company warned that the ongoing conflict has made the overall operating environment in the Middle East increasingly uncertain.
US President Donald Trump has indicated that the strikes on Iran could continue for four to five weeks, and possibly even longer.
In response, Iran has launched waves of missiles and drones targeting US bases and allied locations across the region, including in the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
With inputs from BBC.