Torpedo attack by U.S. submarine sinks Iranian frigate off Sri Lanka

A U.S. submarine attacked an Iranian warship, which sank in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Sri Lanka, on Wednesday, bringing the West Asian conflict closer to the Indian subcontinent. At least 83 people were killed in the torpedo attack.

Iran-Israel war LIVE

U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the strike at a press conference in Washington D.C. “An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo,” Mr. Hegseth said, terming it a “quiet death” and the “first sinking of an enemy ship” by a torpedo since World War II. “Like in that war,” he said, “we are fighting to win”.

The Sri Lankan Navy rescued 32 sailors and recovered 83 bodies after a dawn distress call from the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena, which sank about 40 nautical miles off Galle on the island’s southern coast, Lankan authorities said. The vessel was returning from a maritime exercise in Visakhapatnam.

Distress call

The distress call from the frigate came at 5:08 a.m. IST, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told the nation’s Parliament later in the day. Sri Lanka responded swiftly, owing to its obligations under the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, Mr. Herath said.

“By 6 a.m. we dispatched a naval vessel and by 7 a.m. the second naval vessel,” he told the House. The injured sailors were taken to a state-run hospital in the southern Galle district.

According to Sri Lankan navy spokesman Buddhika Sampath, the frigate was not visible when the rescuers reached the spot. The navy is yet to probe the cause for the distress call, and is currently “focused on search and rescue operations,” he added. “As of now we have recovered 83 bodies,” he told The Hindu at 9:45 p.m.

Naval sources told The Hindu that while the personnel capacity of the IRIS Dena was nearly 180, only around 140 people were believed to be on board at the time of the incident.

Frigate returning from Vizag

The IRIS Dena was returning to Iran after participating in the International Fleet Review 2026, a global maritime exercise held in Visakhapatnam in February. A total of 71 warships were part of the Fleet Review, including 19 foreign vessels.

When contacted, Iranian Ambassador to Sri Lanka Alireza Delkhosh, who was on his way from Colombo to Galle, told The Hindu: “We have no information yet on the cause, we are in close contact with Sri Lankan authorities. I am on my way to see the survivors.”

Sri Lanka has not commented on the U.S. claim of responsibility for the torpedo attack on the Iranian vessel.

Days after the U.S.-Israel combine launched their attack on Iran on February 28, triggering a widening war in West Asia, Sri Lanka had expressed “deep concern over the rapid escalation of hostilities” and called on “all concerned parties to exercise maximum restraint and to take immediate and decisive action to de-escalate tensions”.