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 of Galle.
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.
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.
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.
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.
