Data Centers Are Military Targets Now

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched kamikaze drone strikes against Amazon-owned data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. These attacks occurred three days after the U.S. and Israel began their joint bombardment, causing structural damage and service outages across the region. Iranian state television stated the motive was to highlight the centers' role in supporting enemy military and intelligence activities, not to disrupt civilian services. This marks the first time private sector data centers have been deliberately targeted in military history, raising questions about their status as legal military objectives. Scholars of international law note that when militaries use commercial cloud services, the cloud infrastructure can become a legitimate target, though separating civilian from military use is complex.