GALLE, Sri Lanka/WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) – A U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship off the southern coast of Sri Lanka, killing dozens of sailors and dramatically widening Washington’s pursuit of the Iranian navy.
Sri Lanka’s deputy foreign minister identified the warship as the frigate IRIS Dena, and said it was heading back to Iran from an eastern Indian port.
The attack happened hundreds of miles across the Indian Ocean from the Gulf, where U.S. and Israeli forces are striking Iran and Tehran is retaliating with missile and drone attacks.
“An American submarine sank an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at the Pentagon. “Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death.”
Hospital authorities in the Sri Lankan port city of Galle said 87 bodies were brought in by military rescuers who responded to an early morning distress call.
Another 32 were rescued and were being treated at hospital and about 60 people were likely unaccounted for from an estimated 180 people on board, Sri Lankan authorities said.
‘PEOPLE WERE FLOATING IN THE WATER’
A Pentagon video purporting to have captured the attack showed the warship being hit by a huge explosion which blew apart the rear of the vessel, lifting it from the water, and caused it to begin sinking from the stern.
The exact date when the video was filmed and the type of warship could not be verified. However, the deck shape and mast of the vessel in the video matched file imagery of the same type of warship as the IRIS Dena.
The Iranian vessel had taken part in a naval exercise organised by India in the Bay of Bengal from February 18 to 25, according to the drill’s website.
Sri Lanka said it had launched a search-and-rescue operation to locate survivors after receiving a distress call.
Sri Lankan navy spokesman Commander Buddhika Sampath said boats that reached the location observed only an oil slick, adding that although the incident took place outside Sri Lankan waters, Colombo was still committed to providing support.
“We found people floating in the water and rescued them,” Sampath told reporters. “Later on, we found upon inquiring that they belonged to the Iranian ship.”
Rescuers brought bodies, covered in white sheets, in batches in a truck to the Karapitiya hospital in Galle where they were moved to the morgue.
The commander of the warship and some senior officers were among the survivors and they told the Sri Lankan navy that they were hit by a submarine attack, two Sri Lankan sources told Reuters.
SHIP TOOK PART IN NAVAL DRILL ORGANISED BY INDIA
The website of the ‘Milan’ biennial multilateral naval exercise organised by India listed the ‘IRINS Dena’ as having taken part in the drill, which was held in the Bay of Bengal off India’s eastern coast.
IRIS – or Islamic Republic of Iran Ship – is the more commonly used prefix for Iranian naval vessels, while IRINS – or Islamic Republic of Iran Naval Ship – is sometimes used.
“Indian Navy welcomes IRIS Dena, of the Iranian Navy, on her arrival at #Visakhapatnam … reflecting long-standing cultural links between the two nations,” the Eastern Naval Command of the Indian Navy said in a post on X on February 17 along with pictures of the warship and some of its officers.
An Indian Navy spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment after the Dena was sunk.
(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe, Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart, Donia Chiacu, Michelle Nichol and Saurabh Sharma; writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and YP Rajesh; Editing by Toby Chopra, Jon Boyle and Hugh Lawson)
