Amazon Outages Disrupt Services Following Drone Strikes

On March 5, 2026, Amazon faced significant outages that disrupted shopping for more than 22,000 users across the United States, Bahrain, and the UAE. The issues began around 2:00 PM ET, with customers unable to check out, view product prices, or access their purchase history.

The outages were largely attributed to a technical update related to a software code deployment, as confirmed by Amazon spokesperson Jennie Bryant. “We’re sorry that some customers may have temporarily experienced issues while shopping,” she stated, adding that the problems were resolved by approximately 8:00 PM ET.

However, the situation was further complicated by drone strikes carried out by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which targeted Amazon’s data centers in Bahrain and the UAE. Amazon Web Services reported that two facilities in the UAE were directly struck, while a drone strike near a facility in Bahrain caused structural damage and disrupted power delivery.

By 3:30 PM ET, the number of outage reports had reached 20,804, with over 21,000 users reporting issues just two hours after the outage began. Notably, half of these reports were related to the checkout process, and Amazon Fresh users also faced difficulties placing orders or viewing their purchase history.

Amazon Web Services detailed the impact of the drone strikes, stating, “These strikes have caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage.” This highlights the serious implications of the attacks on Amazon’s operational capabilities.

Despite the challenges, Amazon maintained that its cloud services were functioning normally, indicating that the disruptions were primarily localized to its e-commerce platform. The company has since worked to restore full functionality to its services.

As the situation develops, observers are closely monitoring the implications of these drone strikes on Amazon’s infrastructure and the potential for future disruptions. Details remain unconfirmed regarding any long-term effects on Amazon’s operations in the affected regions.