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A US military submarine has carried out a strike on an Iranian warship, killing at least 80 people and leaving dozens more injured off Sri Lanka’s coast.
US defense secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that American had torpedoed the vessel in international waters during a press conference on the war with Iran on Wednesday.
“The Iranian navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf,” he said as he showed footage of the attack in the Indian Ocean.
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Iranian frigate Iris Dena after being struck by a torpedo in a US attack off Sri Lanka (US Department of War)
Hegseth claimed the Tuesday night strike on the warship was the first time an enemy vessel had been sunk by a torpedo since Second World War.
Sri Lanka’s deputy foreign minister said at least 80 people had been killed in the incident after initial reports suggested more than 100 people were missing following the strike.
A spokesperson for Sri Lanka’s navy earlier confirmed that multiple bodies had been recovered after the Iranian frigate Iris Dena sank just outside the island’s territorial waters. They said that 32 people injured in the incident were rescued by the navy and were being treated in hospital.
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The Iranian frigate Iris Dena has been sunk off Sir Lanka’s coast (file photo) (Iranian Army office)
Vijitha Herath said Sri Lanka’s navy had received information the vessel with 180 on board was in distress, and that the island nation sent ships and air force planes on a rescue mission.
The incident occurred off the coast of Galle in the southern part of the country. Security personnel were seen standing guard in front of the National Hospital Galle, while ambulances drove into Sri Lanka’s southern naval headquarters in the city.
The Iris Dena, one of Iran‘s newest warships, was the centrepiece of a two-ship international tour in 2023 that included port calls in countries including South Africa and Brazil, and was accompanied by the support ship IRIS Makran, a converted oil tanker.
The US Treasury Department included both ships on a sanctions designation in February 2023 along with eight executives of an Iranian drone manufacturer that supplied the weapons to Russia for use against civilian targets in Ukraine.
The sinking comes on the fifth day of the US and Israel’s war with Iran, as countries across the Middle East get dragged into the conflict, amid fears of a protracted regional war, with US president Donald Trump suggesting fighting could last a month or longer.
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An ambulance enters Sri Lanka’s southern naval headquarters in Galle on Wednesday (AFP/Getty)
Explosions sounded in Tehran on Wednesday, with more than 1,000 people reportedly killed in Iran so far, while Israel’s military said its air defences had been activated to intercept incoming Iranian missiles and explosions were heard around Jerusalem.
Blast were also reported in Lebanon, where Israel said it is retaliating against Hezbollah militants.