The Australian government has refused to disclose whether Australian sailors or officers were onboard the US attack submarine that torpedoed and sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, killing at least 87 people.<\/p>\n
More than 50 Australian sailors and officers<\/a> are serving across the US attack submarine fleet, a training regimen that is part of preparations for Australia to command its own nuclear-powered submarines under the Aukus deal.<\/p>\n According to the Royal Australian Navy, one in 10 crew members<\/a> onboard US Navy attack submarines is Australian. Defence sources have told the Guardian they believe two Australians were on board the submarine.<\/p>\n If Australians were onboard the unnamed attack submarine, it would be the first direct involvement of Australian defence personnel in the current conflict.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, told the Senate that US submarine actions were a matter for the US Navy. \u201cFor operational and security reasons, we don\u2019t disclose specific information regarding Australian personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n The US submarine strike on the Islamic Republic of Iran Ship (Iris) Dena was the first time an enemy vessel has been sunk by an American torpedo since the second world war, the US secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, told a Pentagon briefing.<\/p>\n \u201cAn American submarine sank an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. It was sunk by a torpedo, a quiet death.\u201d<\/p>\n Hegseth promised \u201csheer destruction\u201d for an Iranian regime decapitated by the assassination of supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on the weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cAmerica is winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy \u2026 they are toast and they know it.\u201d<\/p>\n The Pentagon has not identified which submarine was involved in the attack on Wednesday but defence trade press reported the submarine that launched the torpedo was the USS Minnesota<\/a>, a Virginia-class submarine that rotated through the HMAS Stirling base in Western Australia last year.<\/p>\n The US Navy\u2019s USS Minnesota is reportedly the vessel that sank an Iranian frigate in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday. Photograph: Colin Murty\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n Up to 180 personnel were believed on board the Iranian frigate, which was sailing in international waters as it returned from a naval exercise organised by India in the Bay of Bengal.<\/p>\n For months, Australians have been training and serving on US attack submarines, based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the likely port of origin for a submarine operating in the Indian Ocean. The Dena was sunk just off the southern Sri Lankan city of Galle, in the Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility. The Indo-Pacific command is headquartered in Hawaii.<\/p>\n In October, the chief of the Royal Australian Navy, V-Adm Mark Hammond, told Senate estimates there were \u201cmore than 50 Australians serving on US fast-attack submarines<\/a> based out of Pearl Harbor\u201d and more than 100 training in the US.<\/p>\n In December in Washington, the defence minister, Richard Marles, said Australia and the US \u201cstand side\u2011by\u2011\u00adside in working together<\/a> to contribute to the peace and security of the Indo\u2011Pacific\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are almost 900 Australian service men and women who are embedded in the United States defence forces across the US \u2026 that is an example of the degree in which our two countries work so closely together in respect of defence.\u201d<\/p>\n The Guardian has put questions to Marles and to the defence department.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s foreign affairs minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, described the US attack as an \u201catrocity\u201d committed \u201c2,000 miles\u201d from Iran\u2019s shores.<\/p>\n \u201cMark my words: the US will come to bitterly regret the precedent it has set.\u201d<\/p>\n In parliament on Thursday, Greens senator David Shoebridge asked Wong: \u201cThe most recent data from your government says there were between 50 and 100 Australian personnel currently embedded on US nuclear-powered attack submarines in the region. Were any Australian personnel on this US submarine when it struck the Iranian frigate and left the survivors to drown?\u201d<\/p>\n Wong said she had seen reports of the US strike and the US justification for the attack.<\/p>\n \u201cUS submarine operations are a matter for the United States,\u201d Wong told the Senate.<\/p>\n \u201cYou ask about Australian Defence Force personnel \u2026 for operational and security reasons, we don\u2019t disclose specific information regarding Australian personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n The director of international and security affairs for the Australia Institute, Emma Shortis, said she felt it was \u201chighly likely\u201d an Australian citizen was part of the crew onboard the submarine \u201cbut the point is we don\u2019t know\u201d.<\/p>\n