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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Daniel Boffey Chief reporter

‘It means missile defence on datacentres’: drone strikes raise doubts over Gulf as AI superpower

Smoke rises after a missile attack on the service center of the US Fifth Fleet in Manama, Bahrain
Smoke rises after a missile attack on the service center of the US Fifth Fleet in Manama, Bahrain.
Photograph: video obtained by Reuters/Reuters

It is believed to be a first: the deliberate targeting of a commercial datacentre by the armed forces of a country at war.

At 4.30am on Sunday morning, what is thought to have been an Iranian Shahed 136 drone struck an Amazon Web Services datacentre in the United Arab Emirates, setting off a devastating fire and forcing a shutdown of the power supply. Further damage was inflicted as attempts were made to suppress the flames with water.

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