Iranian Strike Damages AWS Data Center Operation in Bahrain, Sources Say

An Iranian military strike damaged Amazon Web Services' operation in Bahrain, sources told the Financial Times Wednesday, in what appears to be the first confirmed instance of a major cloud infrastructure facility sustaining damage from the ongoing regional conflict. Bahrain's civil defence force earlier said it was responding to a fire at an unspecified facility. The Financial Times subsequently reported that the fire was linked to an Iranian strike and that AWS operations in the country were affected. Bahrain hosts one of AWS's Middle East data center regions, designated me-south-1, which serves customers across the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and surrounding region. Any damage to that facility would affect cloud services for enterprises, governments, and other customers operating in the region. The report adds a stark new dimension to the conflict between the United States and Iran, which has seen Iranian threats directed at major technology companies in recent days. Iran's Revolutionary Guards had listed several American technology firms as targets in connection with the broader military standoff. U.S. President Donald Trump was cited in the report as saying he would not consider further military moves unless the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, suggesting ongoing negotiations over the strategic waterway that carries a significant share of global oil shipments. AWS has not confirmed the incident or provided details about the scope of damage or service disruptions. The cloud industry has invested heavily in regional redundancy specifically to mitigate the impact of localized outages, whether from natural disasters or, increasingly, from geopolitical events. The Financial Times, via Techmeme, reported the Bahrain strike damage on April 1, 2026.