Sri Lanka’s deputy foreign minister identified the warship as the frigate IRIS Dena, and said it was heading back to Iran from an eastern Indian port.
The attack happened hundreds of miles across the Indian Ocean from the Gulf, where US and Israeli forces are striking Iran and Tehran is retaliating with missile and drone attacks.
“An American submarine sank an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said at the Pentagon. “Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death.”
Hospital authorities in the Sri Lankan port city of Galle said 87 bodies were brought in by military rescuers who responded to an early morning distress call.
Another 32 were rescued and were being treated at hospital and about 60 people were likely unaccounted for from an estimated 180 people on board, Sri Lankan authorities said. –Agencies
