Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has claimed that its aerospace force targeted and disabled Amazon’s central data infrastructure in Bahrain using several cruise missiles, according to a statement released by the group’s public relations office. The IRGC also said the same operation targeted US air defence systems and radar installations in the Bahraini areas of Muharraq and Riffa, though the claims have not been independently verified.
Bahraini and US officials, along with Amazon, have not yet responded to the claim. The reported strikes come amid direct military confrontation between Iran and the United States that has continued for ten consecutive days despite ongoing diplomatic efforts and message exchanges between the two sides. As US strikes on Iranian infrastructure have intensified, Tehran has warned that continued attacks would prompt it to target facilities and infrastructure in regional countries being used by US forces, a warning that appears to align with the claimed strike on Amazon’s data hub given the company’s significant cloud infrastructure presence in the Gulf region.
According to the IRGC statement, the attack was described as a response to what it characterized as US military action against an under construction civilian facility in Darkhovin a day earlier. Separately, Iran’s Permanent Mission to International Organisations in Vienna issued a statement calling on the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations Security Council to condemn the earlier strike on the same under construction nuclear power facility. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it is reviewing reports connected to that incident but has not yet released an independent assessment.
The claimed strike on Amazon’s data infrastructure adds a new dimension to the ongoing conflict, given the scale of cloud computing and digital infrastructure that global technology companies operate across the Gulf region. Bahrain has served as a regional hub for major cloud providers, making any disruption to that infrastructure a matter of broader concern for businesses and governments relying on cloud services hosted in the area. As the conflict continues without confirmation of the claimed attack from involved parties, the incident highlights the growing exposure of digital infrastructure to regional military conflicts, a concern that extends beyond the immediate parties involved in the fighting to any organization dependent on cloud services routed through affected facilities.
Follow the SPIN IDG WhatsApp Channel for updates across the Smart Pakistan Insights Network covering all of Pakistan’s technology ecosystem.