A torpedo fired by a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off the southern coast of Sri Lanka as the Trump administration made good on its threats to destroy Tehran’s military and political leadership.
At least 87 Iranian sailors were killed in the attack on the Iris Dena on Wednesday. The frigate was sailing in international waters while returning from a naval exercise organized by India in the Bay of Bengal. The torpedo attack prompted questions from former US officials about whether Washington’s goal of eliminating Iran’s entire military violated international law.
The incident came as the US-Israeli airstrike against Iran continued for a fifth day, with Washington officials warning that the strikes would soon reach “deeper” targets in Iran. US forces also attacked pro-Iran militias in Iraq, while the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced it would continue missile and drone attacks against targets across the Middle East.
Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host who now runs the Pentagon as Secretary of Defense, confirmed that the United States sank the Iris Dena while it was sailing off the coast of Sri Lanka. The Pentagon released black-and-white images of a Mark 48 heavy torpedo hitting the frigate, sending a geyser of seawater into the air.
“A U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” Hegseth said. He said the attack took place on Tuesday night.
“She was sunk by a torpedo, a silent death – the first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II,” Hegseth added. “Like in that war, when we were still the war department, we fought to win.”
In fact, it is one of the few cases of a submarine sinking a ship since World War II, and a rare example of an attack on a foreign warship not engaged in open hostilities.
According to Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, the coast guard received a distress call from the Iris Dena at 5:08 a.m. on Wednesday. Crew members described the incident as an explosion.
“At 6 a.m. we sent one warship and at 7 a.m. the second,” Herath said. He said Sri Lanka had an obligation to respond to the call for help because it was a signatory to the international convention on maritime search and rescue.
Sri Lankan officials said they had saved 32 people from the ship, which was believed to be carrying 180 crew. Lifeguards recovered 87 bodies from the water. Navy spokesman Buddhika Sampath said rescue ships arrived at the scene of the attack and discovered that the Iranian frigate had already sunk, leaving only an oil slick.
The frigate was outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters but still within its economic zone, 44 nautical miles (81 kilometers) from Galle.
On Wednesday there were signs that the war was continuing to expand throughout the region. Turkey said NATO air defenses had intercepted an Iranian missile heading toward its airspace, presumably to attack NATO forces at Incirlik air base. Turkish officials condemned the attack and called on all sides to de-escalate tensions.
The conflict paralyzed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz for a fifth day, choking off vital oil and gas flows in the Middle East, while the UN said at least 100,000 people had fled Tehran in the first two days of the war.
The Israeli military said it had attacked buildings belonging to the Basij, the volunteer police arm of the IRGC, and buildings belonging to the internal security forces. Israeli forces also advanced toward cities and towns in southern Lebanon as hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah escalated.
Hegseth had previously boasted that the US operation in Iran did not follow any “stupid rules of engagement.”
Wes Bryant, a former U.S. Air Force special operations expert and former chief of civilian damage assessment at the Pentagon, said the attack on the Iris Dena was illegal.
The ship was returning home after participating in training exercises organized by the Indian navy at the time of the attack. India had summoned naval assets from 74 countries for an exercise in March.
“Was that warship actively posing a threat or participating in hostilities?” Bryant asked. “You cannot say that this warship was an imminent threat to anyone. By attacking it, is the Trump administration saying that the imminent threat is to the entire government and military of Iran? If so, that is an incredibly dangerous example of military overreach.”
The Iris Dena was the newest frigate in the Iranian navy and was equipped with surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles, cannons, machine guns and torpedo launchers.
Sampath said rescue efforts were continuing and the main objective of the operation was “to help the survivors”.
A senior Sri Lankan official told The Guardian that the Iranian embassy in Colombo had indicated through clandestine channels that they believed their ship had been the target of a US attack.
The official said the Iranians claimed the ship’s defense and counterattack capabilities were disabled by electromagnetic means.
Another Sri Lankan defense source said it appeared the ship had been hit by two torpedoes.
The main US naval base in the Indian Ocean is Diego Garcia, located in the Chagos Archipelago, more than 1,600 kilometers from Sri Lanka.
