Amazon Web Services (AWS) confirmed a fire and power disruption at its UAE data centre after “objects” struck during Iranian retaliatory missile barrages on Gulf targets.
Incident Details
The AWS Middle East (UAE) region facility in Dubai reported issues around 4:30 AM local time on March 2, 2026, coinciding with confirmed intercepts over Jebel Ali and Abu Dhabi. Falling debris from neutralized Iranian drones and missiles ignited a fire damaging power connections, triggering an outage in the mec1-az2 availability zone.
Operational Impact
AWS activated redundancies across Bahrain and global regions, restoring 85% services within hours, though latency spikes affected cloud workloads for UAE banks, telcos, and e-commerce. No data loss occurred; full recovery expected by March 3.
Regional Context
The strike follows US-Israel attacks killing Khamenei, with Iran targeting US-linked infrastructure. Dubai Airport, Palm Jumeirah hotels, and ports sustained debris damage, shuttering UAE stock markets and stranding 10M Indian expats. AWS joins Gulf tech disruptions as cyber-physical risks escalate.
