A U.S. submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka, Pete Hegseth, the U.S. defense secretary, said on Wednesday, as part of a widening military campaign against Iran.
Although Mr. Hegseth did not name the ship, an Iranian vessel with a crew of 180 sank in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday off the southern coast of Sri Lanka, officials in the country said. At least 80 people were killed, according to Arun Hemachandra, the deputy foreign minister of Sri Lanka. Government officials said 32 people were rescued earlier, and a search was underway for other survivors.
The torpedoed Iranian warship risks dragging Sri Lanka, a South Asian island nation of around 22 million, into a political situation not of its making.
The Iranian ship “thought it was safe in international waters,” but “instead, it was sunk by a torpedo,” Mr. Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing.
“America is winning, decisively, devastatingly and without mercy,” Mr. Hegseth said, adding that “more waves” are coming. He said it was the first time an American submarine has been used to fire a torpedo against an enemy ship in combat since World War II.
Iran’s naval fleet has been under attack since the United States and Israel launched a war on Iran last weekend, targeting the country’s military and security apparatus.
The Iris Dena, described as a destroyer, was sailing outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters when it sent a distress signal at 5:08 a.m. local time, the Sri Lankan foreign minister, Vijitha Herath, told Sri Lanka’s Parliament. Sri Lanka responded, sending naval ships and its air force to the endangered vessel.
The strike, more than 2,000 miles from Tehran, stretched the battlefield to its furthest point since the war began. Iran has targeted multiple countries with missiles in recent days, including aiming as far as Cyprus and Turkey.
The Sri Lankan government has not taken a public stance on the conflict, but it has long maintained friendly relations with Iran, analysts said.
“We have a fairly good relationship with Iran — very much a microcosm of our wider relationship with the Arab and the Islamic world,” said Uditha Devapriya, a foreign policy analyst based in Colombo, the capital.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr. Herath said in a post on X that he had signed the condolence book for Iran’s slain supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the Iranian embassy in Colombo. The two countries had strengthened their bilateral ties under his tenure, he said, adding that Sri Lanka remained “appreciative of lran’s friendship.”
Sri Lankan officials said the 32 rescued crew members were taken to the Karapitiya Hospital, in the southern coastal city of Galle.
Officers found bodies floating in the water where the ship went under, Capt. Buddhika Sampath, a spokesman for the Sri Lankan navy, said during a news conference.
“We haven’t seen the ship, but observed oil patches and life craft,” Captain Sampath said.
While the incident took place outside of Sri Lankan waters, the island nation responded in line with its commitment to an international maritime search and rescue treaty, the foreign minister said.
“We are signatories so we intervened on a humane basis as is our responsibility,” Mr. Herath told Parliament.
The Iris Dena, a prized destroyer in the Iranian navy, had participated in an international naval exercise in India last month. The ship had been making its way back toward Iran from Visakhapatnam, a city in India where the joint exercise ended on Feb. 25. The United States was among the many participants in the drills.
Anupreeta Das covers India and South Asia for The Times. She is based in New Delhi.
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