A US military submarine has launched a strike on an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka’s coast, killing more than 80 people and leaving dozens more injured.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that America had torpedoed the vessel in international waters during a press conference on the war against Iran on Wednesday.
“The Iranian navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf,” he said, as he showed footage of Tuesday night’s attack in the Indian Ocean on what he called the Islamic Republic's “prize ship”.
Hegseth claimed it marked the first time an enemy vessel had been sunk by a torpedo since the Second World War.
Sri Lanka's navy said on Wednesday it recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people, after initial reports suggested more than 100 people were missing following the strike.
Sri Lanka's foreign minister Vijitha Herath told parliament that its navy had earlier received information that the Iranian frigate Iris Dena, with 180 people on board, was in distress and sinking. The island nation sent ships and air force planes on a rescue mission.
Navy spokesman Commander Buddhika Sampath said by the time navy ships reached the location, there was no sign of the ship and “there were only some oil patches and life rafts. We found people floating on the water.”
He said the 32 people rescued were admitted to a hospital in the seaside town of Galle on Sri Lanka's southern coast, while the bodies recovered were being brought to land.
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.
Dr Anil Jasinghe, a top health ministry official, said one of those rescued is in critical condition, seven are receiving emergency treatment and others are being treated for minor injuries.
The Iris Dena – one of Iran's newest warships – is a Moudge-class frigate that patrols in deep water for the Iranian navy. It is armed with heavy guns, surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles and torpedoes, and also carries one helicopter.
The frigate 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.
At least 17 Iranian naval vessels have been sunk during the ongoing war, said US Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads the American military's Central Command.
“We are also sinking the Iranian navy – the entire navy,” he said in a video message. “Thus far we've destroyed 17 Iranian ships, including the most operational Iranian submarine that now has a hole in its side.
“For decades, the Iranian regime has harassed international shipping,” he added. “Today there's not a single Iranian ship underway in the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, or Gulf of Oman, and we will not stop.”
The sinking of the Iris Dena comes on the fifth day of the US and Israel’s war with Iran, as countries across the Middle East continue to get dragged into the conflict.
During the Pentagon news briefing on Wednesday, Hegseth warned attacks on Iran will continue for as long as necessary and US “will punch Iran while it is down”.
“Our air defences and that of our allies have plenty of runway,” he told reporters. “We can sustain this fight easily for as long as we need to...
“This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it’s not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, and that’s exactly how it should be.”
Speaking of the six members of the US military who have been killed in the conflict, he vowed to “avenge” their deaths.
And asked about the attack on a girls’ primary school in southern Iran, which killed more than 160 people including scores of pupils, he said the US is investigating the incident.
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.
Blasts were also reported in Lebanon, where Israel said it is retaliating against Hezbollah militants. Thick columns of smoke rose above Beirut as renewed Israeli strikes reduced large buildings in the Haret Hreik to piles of rubble.
In the latest escalation in the expanding conflict, Nato air defences shot down an Iranian ballistic missile heading towards Turkish airspace, Ankara said.
The missile was shot down over the eastern Mediterranean Sea. No casualties or injuries were reported in the incident, which prompted the first action from Nato forces so far.
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