Yesterday there were reports of “sparks and fire” and a temporary, intentional shutdown at an Amazon cloud facility in the United Arab Emirates. Reuters asked Amazon yesterday for confirmation that the problem was caused by the Iranian attacks, but Amazon “did not confirm or deny.”
Amazon’s Health dashboard now has an update, and the issue is more serious than previously reported, spanning three facilities in two countries. In addition to two direct impacts in the UAE, a Bahraini facility was indirectly damaged due to a nearby explosion. Iran has not been named, but drone strikes from one source or another have resulted in structural damage, blackouts and fires, triggering water-based fire suppression systems – resulting in water damage.
“Additionally, we can confirm that the AWS Management Console and command line interface (CLI) are disrupted by the failure of two Availability Zones,” the statement said.
Inside Iran, internet connectivity has been almost completely cut since the start of the US-Israeli military operation on February 28, with experts blaming the Iranian regime for the information blackout.
As was the case with last month’s Internet shutdown in Iran, a small amount of traffic continues to enter the country.
The country’s recently developed system of whitelisting enables exceptions to Internet blocks for those loyal to the government. pic.twitter.com/gxbsJM1sRz
– Doug Madory (also on Bluesky) (@DougMadory) 28 February 2026
However, there is also an active cyber-offensive reportedly targeting Iran. For example, attackers appear to have overridden Iranian news websites, and added messages urging Iranians to take up arms against the ruling regime.
The Health dashboard item for the Amazon issue lists the severity of the problem as “Interrupted in the United Arab Emirates” and “Affectedin Bahrain, and says its operating conditions in the region are “unpredictable”. It includes suggestions for customers including backing up data, transferring data completely out of the Middle East, and implementing any “disaster recovery plans” customers already have.
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