The flames of war have spread to the technology sector! The Amazon Middle East cloud computing center has been attacked, with more infrastructure becoming targets.

On Thursday local time, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had carried out strikes on an Amazon Web Services data center located in Bahrain in retaliation for earlier U.S. military actions.

In an IRGC statement, it said: “This operation is the first real warning issued to the enemy. If the relevant warning is ignored and assassination operations continue, we will impose even harsher penalties on the next batch of named companies. At that time, these companies will bear full responsibility for their complete destruction in the region, and the responsibility will be borne personally by the U.S. President himself.”

Bahrain’s authorities confirmed that after the Iranian attack on Amazon infrastructure, the civil defense department was putting out fires at the scene, which was also the second attack in the past two days targeting Amazon infrastructure in Bahrain.

On Thursday, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Zayani told the UN Security Council that he hopes the Council will vote on a resolution drafted by Bahrain on Friday. The resolution is intended to protect the safety of commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the surrounding waters.

Earlier this week, the IRGC designated companies and institutions related to 18 U.S. information and communications technology and artificial intelligence (AI) companies in the Middle East as strike targets. However, Amazon was not included on that list.

The released list includes multiple major U.S. technology companies, such as Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, as well as hardware suppliers including HP, Intel, IBM, and Cisco. In addition, companies such as Tesla, NVIDIA, Oracle, JPMorgan Chase, and Boeing are also on the list.

Iran claims that these companies provide support for U.S. military actions and defines them as “lawful strike targets,” arguing that they should be held responsible for the actions taken in connection with Iran. “From now on, with every assassination incident, one U.S. company will be destroyed.”

These threats from Iran target U.S. companies’ facilities and personnel in the Middle East, not office locations within the United States itself. But this warning has pulled these U.S. firms directly into a conflict that has driven fuel prices to historical highs and disrupted global supply chains.

As part of large-scale AI infrastructure buildouts in the Middle East, Microsoft and Amazon have invested billions of dollars in data centers in Gulf countries. The IRGC accuses these companies of providing technical support for the joint U.S.-Israeli military actions against Iran.

Last week, Amazon Web Services (AWS) reported a service disruption in its Bahrain region, attributing it to drone activity related to the conflict in the Middle East.

At the time, an Amazon spokesperson said the company was assisting customers in migrating services to other AWS regions while working to restore operations at the affected sites. As Amazon’s cloud computing division, AWS supports the operation of many widely used websites and government systems, and is also an important source of profit for the company.

In addition to the technology companies mentioned above, Iran has also listed multiple bridges as potential military strike targets, including bridges located in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Jordan.

It is reported that on Thursday, the Beykikeh bridge on the road in the city of Beik-eh, Iran’s Kalaraj—an iconic Iranian engineering project—was damaged in an attack carried out by the United States and Israel. The attack damaged the bridge’s main structural components, and the relevant road sections have been fully closed. Local authorities issued an emergency alert urging the public to avoid the area. The attack also led to a power outage in parts of Karaj.

U.S. President Trump then posted that Iran’s biggest bridge collapsed and can no longer be used—there will be more to follow! It’s time for Iran to reach an agreement before it’s too late.

(Source: Caixin Global)