GALLE, Sri Lanka— A torpedo fired by a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, whose navy said Wednesday it recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people.
The Iranian ship sunk in the Indian Ocean was the Islamic Republic's “prize ship,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. It was one of the few cases of a submarine sinking a ship since World War II.
The sinking of the IRIS Dena illustrates a US-Israeli military operation against Iran's military that extends beyond its borders. President Trump has said that one of the key goals of the war is to take out Iran's navy.
“A U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship that it thought was safe in international waters,” Hegseth said at a Pentagon news conference. “Instead, she was sunk by a torpedo.”
Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told Parliament that her navy had received information that the IRIS Dena, with 180 people on board, was in distress and sinking. The island nation sent ships and planes on a rescue mission, he said.
Navy spokesman Commander Buddhika Sampath said that when navy ships reached the scene, there was no sign of the ship in distress and “there were only some oil slicks and life rafts. We found people floating in the water.”
He said the 32 rescued people were admitted to a hospital in Galle, a city on Sri Lanka's southern coast. The recovered bodies are also being moved ashore, he said.
At Galle National Hospital, the bodies of Iranian sailors arrived in trucks and were stored in a makeshift morgue. The hospital was guarded by Sri Lankan police and naval personnel, while workers unloaded the bodies out of sight.
Dr. Anil Jasinghe, a senior 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, patrolled in deep waters and was armed with heavy weapons, surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles and torpedoes. He had a helicopter.
The ship had been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in February 2023, along with eight executives of an Iranian drone manufacturer that supplied 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 heads the US military's Central Command.
Francis and Mallawarachi write for the Associated Press. AP writers Adam Schreck in Bangkok, Jon Gambrell in Duba and Ben Finley and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed to this report.
