West Asia war sees data centres targeted: Why it matters
India Today
Iran's strikes on data centres mark a shift to targeting digital infrastructure to disrupt US and Israeli operations, degrade AI-driven targeting, and impose economic and reputational costs on Gulf states; in response, the US and Israel have struck data infrastructure in Tehran.
Iran may be remembered for not-so-precise but largely quantitative strikes in this war against the US, Israel, and their allies, but that is not entirely accurate. Just a day after the coordinated strikes that jolted Tehran, it carried out targeted attacks on three critical data centres with precision and intent using Shahed 136 drones on March 1, two in the UAE and a third in Bahrain. Data centres attacked in West Asia War, as on March 23,2026.
India Today’s Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) team navigated the complex and evolving canvas of warfare in West Asia to examine a critical dimension of modern conflict. We analysed attacks on data centres across both sides to assess the underlying intent, their utility in a technology-driven and likely AI-enabled battlespace, and why data centres across the globe may require stronger protection in the years ahead.
As of March 23, at least five confirmed physical attacks have targeted data centres, alongside at least one major cyber attack. These incidents have pulled major tech infrastructure directly into the operational landscape of the US, Israel-Iran war, marking a shift where cloud and data systems are no longer at the periphery but active targets.
On March 1, two Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centre facilities in the UAE were hit by direct Iranian drone strikes, causing structural damage, fires, and significant regional cloud outages. On the same day, an AWS facility in Bahrain was impacted by nearby blasts and debris, triggering localised power failures and service disruptions.
The conflict’s reciprocal dimension became evident on March 11, when US and Israeli airstrikes targeted critical digital infrastructure in Tehran. The Bank Sepah data centre was attacked, reportedly to disrupt financial flows, including salary disbursements linked to the IRGC and the Iranian military. Alongside it, an IRGC-linked government data centre in Tehran was struck to potentially degrade command and control functions and paralyse administrative operations.
On March 13, Meginim Data Services in Israel suffered a major breach claimed by the Cyber Islamic Resistance, with three large batches of sensitive data allegedly exfiltrated.
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