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Iran struck Amazon data centers again amid widening war, satellites show
Satellites show burn scars and fires at AWS data centers and Saudi oil refinery.
TL;DR
- Satellite images show new damage to Amazon data centers in Bahrain and critical Saudi oil facilities.
- These strikes are part of an escalating conflict involving Iran, its Houthi allies, and the US and Gulf states.
- Previous attacks on March 1 damaged three Amazon data centers in the UAE and Bahrain, leading to repair delays and workload migrations.
- Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for new missile attacks on Amazon data centers in Bahrain on July 21.
- Houthi attacks on Saudi oil refineries and the port of Yanbu, used for oil exports, threaten global oil supplies.
- The Houthis declared a naval blockade aimed at halting Saudi oil exports through the Red Sea's Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
- Satellite images revealed a fire at an oil tank at Saudi Aramco's Jazan oil refinery and smoke from flare towers at other processing plants.
- Attacks have led to a significant drop in oil tanker transits through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
- Open-source intelligence, particularly free and uncensored satellite imagery like Copernicus Sentinel-2, is crucial for verifying damage and assessing the war's impact.