A fire knocked out part of an Amazon Web Services facility in the United Arab Emirates after unidentified objects struck the site, forcing emergency crews to cut power and triggering service disruption, Hindustan Times reported.
The incident happened around 4:30 PM Dubai time on Sunday. According to a post on the AWS Health Dashboard, sparks and flames broke out after objects hit one of its data centres. Firefighters switched off electricity and backup generators to control the blaze.
AWS said one of its Availability Zones, a cluster within a region, was impacted. It did not say what the objects were or who was responsible.
The company began diverting traffic to other facilities to keep services running. It operates 123 such clusters across 39 regions worldwide. There is no estimate yet on when power will be fully restored at the affected site.
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Conflict link remains unclear
It is not clear if the strike on the data centre is linked to the escalating confrontation between the United States and Iran.
The fire broke out on the same day Iranian projectiles reportedly hit locations in the UAE. Those attacks were described as retaliation for recent US and Israeli strikes that killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other senior officials, as per HT.
There has been no official confirmation tying the AWS incident to the regional attacks.
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Wider regional strikes
Iran's response has stretched beyond the UAE. Missile and drone strikes have reportedly targeted US bases and allied sites in Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.
AWS said its other data centre clusters were not affected. The company continues to reroute customer traffic to minimise disruption while restoration work is underway, HT reported.
For now, the bigger questions remain unanswered. What exactly hit the facility? Was it part of the wider conflict? And how long will the disruption last? AWS has not provided further details.
