A US submarine sank an Iranian warship with a torpedo in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Sri Lanka, marking an escalation and widening of the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed during a press briefing that the US sank the vessel. “Yesterday, in the Indian Ocean … an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” Hegseth said.
“Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II,” he added.
The Iranian ship, the frigate IRIS Dena, had been making its way back from a visit to India, where it participated in an international naval exercise and visited the port of Visakhapatnam.
The Sri Lankan navy responded to a distress call from the ship and so far has recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people out of the 180-person crew.
US Central Command has claimed that its forces have sunk or struck 20 Iranian warships since the US and Israel launched the war on Saturday. In his first statement on the war, President Trump said one of the goals was to “annihilate” the Iranian navy.
