Iran claims to have struck and destroyed AWS facility in Bahrain; infrastructure offline for months amid escalating regional military operations.

Amazon's Bahrain data center was struck by missile attacks conducted by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to state media reports. The IRGC claimed to have launched cruise missiles against the AWS facility, destroying it in retaliation for U.S. bombing operations against a nuclear power plant under construction in Darkhovin, Iran, near the Iraqi border.

This represents the latest attack on Amazon's Middle East infrastructure. Days after the U.S. began air strikes against Iran, Iranian forces used drones and missiles to hit several AWS regional data centers in the Middle East. The damage was severe enough that Amazon placed the Middle East (Bahrain) Region (ME-SOUTH-1) in "hard down" status between late March and early April, according to the AWS Health Dashboard.

The escalation occurred despite a ceasefire agreement reached on June 17, 2026, between the U.S. and Iran. That agreement collapsed on July 7 when Iran allegedly attacked three ships in the Strait of Hormuz sailing through Omani waters. This triggered an escalating cycle of retaliatory strikes, including a recent Iranian attack that resulted in American casualties in Jordan. On July 17, U.S. Central Command struck both the Darkhovin nuclear facility and IRGC forces responsible for attacks against U.S. service members in Jordan. The IRGC attributed its latest AWS attacks directly to these U.S. strikes.

Despite the reported damage, Amazon appears to have maintained service continuity by shifting customer traffic to unaffected data centers outside the conflict zone. The company has not publicly disclosed its plans to repair or restore the Bahrain facility. The regional security situation remains precarious, with the IRGC having directly threatened American technology companies including Microsoft, Apple, Google, and OpenAI's $30-billion Stargate data center in Dubai.