The United States on Wednesday sank an Iranian frigate in the water near Sri Lanka, just days after the warship took part in the International Fleet Review in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, and the Milan 2026 multi-nation exercise. The incident left 87 people dead.
The US Department of War (previously Department of Defense) released video footage of a US submarine torpedoing the Iranian vessel. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth said at a press briefing, “An American submarine sank an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo.” Follow US-Iran war live updates
The Sri Lankan navy said that it recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people after it received a distress signal from the Iranian warship, named IRIS Dena.
On Thursday, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that the US struck IRIS Dena in international waters without warning. In a post on X, Araghchi added, “The US will bitterly regret the precedent it has set.”
What led to the Iranian warship’s sinking
Following last Saturday’s joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran and the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, tensions have only continued to escalate, with Tehran also launching retaliatory strikes.
US President Donald Trump said that Iran posed an imminent threat, adding that Washington had acted before Tehran could attack Israel and American interests. The White House recently said that Iran’s regime had been “absolutely crushed”.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the torpedo gave the Iranian warship a “quiet death”. A torpedo is a cigar-shaped underwater missile.
US Air Force General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this was the first time a US submarine used a Mark 48 torpedo to sink an enemy vessel since 1945.
“I want to remind everybody that this is an incredible demonstration of America’s global reach. To hunt, find and kill an out-of-area deployer is something that only the United States can do at this type of scale,” he said.
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On Tuesday, the US military’s Central Command said it had already sunk 17 Iranian warships and was on track to destroy the Islamic Republic’s entire navy.
Sri Lanka’s navy said that it received a distress signal from the IRIS Dena at 5:08am on March 4. The Iranian warship had 180 people on board.
Sri Lankan foreign minister Vijitha Herath said that the navy sent ships and planes on a rescue mission soon after receiving the distress signal. However, by the time the navy reached the site, there was no sign of the ship.
Sri Lankan navy spokesman Commander Buddhika Sampath said that “only some oil patches and life rafts” were found at the location. “We found people floating on the water,” Sampath added.
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He further stated that the 32 rescued people were admitted to a hospital in Galle, a southern coastal town, adding that the recovered bodies were also brought to the land.
Sri Lankan police and naval personnel guarded the National Hospital in Galle, as bodies of the Iranian sailors were arriving in trucks and stored in a makeshift mortuary, the Associated Press reported.
Additionally, over 60 crew members are feared missing after the incident.
IRIS Dena torpedoed
IRIS Dena, one of Iran’s newest warships, which was torpedoed by a US submarine in the waters near Sri Lanka, was a Moudge-class frigate that patrols in deep water for the Iranian navy.
The vessel had been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in February 2023.
At the time of sinking, the Iranian warship was armed with heavy guns, surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles and torpedoes. It also carried a helicopter.
The Indian Navy had welcomed IRIS Dena after it arrived in the country on February 16 for the multilateral naval exercise, Milan 2026, in a social media post, describing it as a reflection of the “long-standing cultural links between the two nations”.
Sinking took place outside Indian waters
While India’s ministry of external affairs has not yet issued a statement regarding the incident, people familiar with the matter have said the sinking occurred outside India’s territorial waters after the Iranian warship completed its participation in the multi-nation exercise, HT reported earlier.
Experts in New Delhi have also questioned whether the US had kept India in the loop about its naval operations in the Indian Ocean.