️ US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced that an American submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, stating the vessel was hit by a torpedo on Tuesday and died a “quiet death,” though he did not name the specific ship. This declaration followed reports from Sri Lanka that its navy responded to a distress call on Wednesday morning from an Iranian ship named the Iris Dena, which had sunk approximately 40 km from the country’s southern coastline.

️ A Sri Lankan defense official told BBC Sinhala that 80 bodies from the frigate were recovered, with another 32 personnel rescued. Based on the ship’s documentation, about 180 people were believed to have been aboard the Iris Dena, according to a Sri Lankan navy spokesman. The survivors were “seriously injured” and taken to a hospital in the southern port of Galle, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath said.

️ Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the US of having “perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores.” In a post on X, he wrote, “Frigate Dena, a guest of India’s Navy carrying almost 130 sailors, was struck in international waters without warning. Mark my words: The US will come to bitterly regret the precedent it has set.” Hegseth, at a news conference on Wednesday, claimed the US submarine sank an Iranian warship “that thought it was safe in international waters” and asserted it was “the first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War Two,” although the UK and Pakistan have both sunk vessels using torpedoes since 1945.

️ The sinking of the Iris Dena coincides with a fifth day of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran, with the Israeli military stating it had hit “security headquarters” across the capital, Tehran, on Wednesday. Israel has also conducted airstrikes on Lebanon and deployed ground forces into the south of the country after the armed group Hezbollah launched rockets and drones at Israel. Iran appears to have continued retaliatory attacks, with new strikes reported in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait on Wednesday, while Turkey said “NATO defenses” shot down an Iranian missile heading toward Turkish territory.

️ Sri Lanka has maintained neutrality in the conflict, refraining from taking sides and calling for “restraint and immediate de-escalation” from “all concerned parties.” Foreign Minister Herath paid tribute to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei after his assassination on Saturday. A government spokesman later stated that Sri Lanka would issue a formal message of condolence regarding all deaths resulting from the conflict, including Iranian state leaders and officials who had been killed.

Source: www.bbc.com