Sri Lankan sailors rushed into a war they're trying to avoid after an Iranian warship went down in the Indian Ocean off the country's southern coast. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that a US submarine sank the vessel with a torpedo as part of an escalating campaign against Iran—marking the first time since World War II that an American sub has torpedoed an enemy ship in combat. The Pentagon later released video of the sinking. Hegseth didn't name the ship, but Sri Lankan officials said they received a distress call from the IRIS Dena, an Iranian destroyer with around 180 crew members, the BBC reports.
Sri Lanka says it dispatched navy ships and aircraft under its international search-and-rescue obligations, pulling 32 survivors from the water and taking them to a hospital in the coastal city of Galle, the New York Times reports. Navy spokesman Capt. Buddhika Sampath said crews saw bodies, oil slicks, and life rafts but not the vessel itself. The navy said 87 bodies were recovered, the AP reports. Dozens of sailors are missing. Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath stressed the response was "on a humane basis," even as analysts warned the incident could drag the island of 22 million into a conflict it has taken pains to stay out of.
The ship had just taken part in multinational naval drills in India that included both Iran and the US and was returning toward Iran when it was hit more than 2,000 miles from Tehran. Reuters reports that in a Feb. 17 post on X, the Eastern Naval Command of the Indian Navy welcomed the visit of the Iranian vessel, saying it reflected "long-standing cultural links between the two nations." Sources tell Reuters that the survivors include the ship's commander and other senior officers.
- The Telegraph reports that the last time a submarine destroyed a major warship was in 1982, when Britain's HMS Conqueror sank Argentina's General Belgrano during the Falklands war, killing 323 sailors.
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