At least 83 people have died after the sinking of an Iranian ship in the Indian Ocean, off the southern coast of Sri Lanka, after being hit by a torpedo launched from a United States submarine. Washington has released images of the attack in the midst of escalating war with Tehran.
The ship, identified as the Iris Dena and described as a destroyer, was sailing outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters when it issued a distress signal at 5:08 a.m. local time, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath reported in Parliament. There were 180 crew members on board.
The Sri Lankan authorities immediately deployed naval units and air resources to the area. So far, 32 seriously injured sailors have been rescued and taken to Karapitiya hospital in the coastal city of Galle. Search teams continue to scour the area for survivors, while several bodies have been located floating in the water.
“We have not seen the ship, but we have seen oil stains and emergency vessels,” Sri Lanka Navy spokesman Captain Buddhika Sampath explained at a press conference.
The Secretary of War of the United States, Pete Hegseth, has assured that his country is winning the war “conclusively” and stressed that this is the first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo launched from a US submarine since World War II.
An American submarine sank an Iranian warship. “It was in international waters and was sunk by a torpedo,” said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in a press conference with the Chief of the United States General Staff, Dan Caine, to update the situation within the framework of the operation launched against Iran last Saturday.
This has confirmed that the US Navy is behind the attack on the Iranian vessel. “A silent death,” said Hegseth, who noted that it was the “first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since the Second World War.” This episode, in the opinion of the head of the Pentagon, shows Washington’s will to wage and win the war, as in the aforementioned conflict.
