Iranian strikes on AWS facilities left customer data beyond recovery in Bahrain, UAE
AWS confirms permanent customer data loss in its Bahrain region and one UAE availability zone six months after Iranian drone strikes destroyed Middle East infrastructure.
In September 15 updates, AWS said it cannot restore customer data hosted exclusively in the Middle East (Bahrain) region (me-south-1) or in availability zone mec1-az2 of the Middle East (UAE) region (me-central-1), following Iranian drone strikes that began in early March 2026 in retaliation for a joint US-Israeli military campaign. Bahrain's damage spanned multiple availability zones and exceeded the region's redundancy design; a second UAE-zone disruption in April took Bahrain fully offline at one point. Most customers had already relocated using backups or alternative solutions; AWS promised a UAE restoration update in coming months and a Bahrain update in early 2027.