diff --git a/aws-experiment-launch/terminate_instances.py b/aws-experiment-launch/terminate_instances.py
index 0de97a918..ccbc3d6f5 100644
--- a/aws-experiment-launch/terminate_instances.py
+++ b/aws-experiment-launch/terminate_instances.py
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
     parser.add_argument('--instance_output', type=str, dest='instance_output',
                         default='instance_output.txt',
                         help='the file contains node_name_tag and region number of created instances.')
+    parser.add_argument('--node_name_tag', type=str, dest='node_name_tag')
+    parser.add_argument('--region_number', type=str, dest='region_number')
     parser.add_argument('--region_config', type=str,
                         dest='region_config', default='configuration.txt')
     args = parser.parse_args()
@@ -17,7 +19,15 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
     if not args.instance_output or not os.path.isfile(args.instance_output):
         print "%s is not existed" % args.instance_output
         sys.exit(1)
-    if args.instance_output:
+    if args.region_number and args.node_name_tag:
+        ec2_client, session = utils.create_ec2_client(args.region_number, args.region_config)
+        filters = [{'Name': 'tag:Name','Values': [args.node_name_tag]}]
+        instance_ids = utils.get_instance_ids(ec2_client.describe_instances(Filters=filters))
+        ec2_client.terminate_instances(InstanceIds=instance_ids)
+        print "waiting until instances with tag %s died." % args.node_name_tag
+        waiter = ec2_client.get_waiter('instance_terminated')
+        waiter.wait(InstanceIds=instance_ids)
+    elif args.instance_output:
         with open(args.instance_output, "r") as fin:
             for line in fin.readlines():
                 items = line.split(" ")