Amazon Faces Dual Disruptions: Drone Strikes Hit AWS Sites as Retail Platform Stumbles
Physical attacks and software errors expose the vulnerabilities of the existing large-scale digital systems.
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Drone strikes have damaged several facilities operated by Amazon’s cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, disrupting services and highlighting the vulnerability of critical digital infrastructure during geopolitical conflicts.
Amazon said the attacks occurred early on Sunday when drones struck two AWS data centres in the UAE and landed near another facility in Bahrain. The strikes caused structural damage, triggered fires and disrupted power systems and network connectivity at the affected sites. In some locations, fire suppression systems were activated, resulting in additional water damage to parts of the infrastructure.
AWS said its teams are working to restore services, though repairs may take time given the extent of the physical damage. The company has advised customers using regional services to back up their data and consider migrating workloads to other AWS regions while recovery efforts continue.
Analysts say the strikes may represent one of the first documented cases of large-scale commercial cloud infrastructure being directly affected by military action. As governments, companies and security systems increasingly rely on commercial cloud platforms, experts warn that major data centres could become strategic targets in modern conflicts.
Meanwhile, in the United States, Amazon said it had resolved a software issue that caused a widespread outage of its website and mobile app, temporarily disrupting shopping for thousands of users and briefly affecting some of the company’s other services.
The disruption triggered a surge of complaints from users across the US. According to outage-tracking website Downdetector, reports of problems peaked at roughly 22,000 before gradually declining through the evening. By about 8:16 p.m. ET, fewer than 650 incidents were still being reported. In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson said the company had identified and fixed the problem.
“We’re sorry that some customers may have temporarily experienced issues while shopping. We have resolved the issue, which was related to a software code deployment, and the website and app are now running smoothly,” the spokesperson said.
Users reported a range of problems during the outage, including checkout and payment failures, fluctuating prices on items, and errors when updating shipping addresses or locating inventory at nearby stores. Mobile app users also reported crashes and notifications warning of possible service disruptions.
The outage also appeared to affect parts of Amazon’s broader ecosystem. Downdetector logged minor disruptions involving the company’s streaming service, Prime Video, as well as AWS. Amazon Fresh was also reportedly unable to process pickup or delivery orders during the incident.
