US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed the US military sank an Iranian frigate in international waters off Sri Lanka on Wednesday morning, underscoring US reach as Washington expands its campaign against Iran.
“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo,” Hegseth told reporters.
Sri Lanka carries out rescue operation
Sri Lanka’s military had reported its navy was conducting a rescue after the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena issued a distress call from about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the island, just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters in the Indian Ocean.
Sri Lankan Navy spokesman Buddhika Sampath said the navy “responded to the distress call under our international obligations, as this is within our search and rescue area.” He added that when Sri Lankan ships arrived the vessel had already sunk and “there were only some oil patches and life rafts. We found people floating on the water.”
The frigate had a crew of 180 sailors. Thirty-two were rescued from the sea and are being treated at a hospital in Galle, south of Colombo. Sri Lankan officials said search efforts continued, and police later reported recovering 87 bodies of Iranian sailors.
First US sinking by torpedo since World War II
Sri Lankan authorities were initially reluctant to share details of how the frigate sank and denied early reports from unnamed sources that a submarine was involved.
Hegseth described the submarine action as a “quiet death” and said it was the first US sinking of an enemy ship by torpedo since World War II. “Like in that war,” he added, “we are fighting to win.”
The IRIS Dena is a domestically produced light frigate used by the Iranian navy for deep-water patrols. It is armed with surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles and torpedoes, and can carry one helicopter.
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Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko