The US will “bitterly regret the precedent it has set” after an American submarine sank an Iranian warship, Iran’s foreign minister warned Thursday.
“The US has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores. Frigate Dena, a guest of India’s Navy carrying almost 130 sailors, was struck in international waters without warning,” Abbas Araqchi wrote on X on Thursday.
“Mark my words: The US will come to bitterly regret precedent it has set.”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said that the ship “thought it was safe in international waters.”
“Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo — Quiet Death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II,” Hegseth said.
“Like in that war, back when we were still the War Department, we are fighting to win.”
Video released by the Pentagon appeared to show the vessel being hit by a huge explosion, which ripped apart its rear. The impact of the blast caused the ship to lift and begin sinking from the stern.
One Mark 48 torpedo — which costs an estimated $4.2 million — was used to sink the warship, Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.
“The Mark 48 is one of the most lethal anti-ship weapons in the U.S. inventory,” Thomas Shugart, of the Center for a New American Security, told Fox News Digital.
Shugart said the torpedo isn’t designed to hit the vessel directly, but it creates a “vapor bubble” underneath, which causes the ship to split in half.
“This torpedo detonated underneath the stern of the Iranian ship and lifted it up out of the water, and so it sank in a matter of minutes,” he said.
Sri Lanka’s navy recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people on Wednesday.
Buddhika Sampath, the Sri Lankan navy spokesperson, said there were no signs of the vessel when rescue crews arrived at the scene, “only some oil patches and life rafts.”
“We found people floating on the water,” he said.
The ship’s commander and some top brass were among the survivors.
The IRIS Dena was heading back to Iran from an eastern Indian port when it was hit, according to the Sri Lankan deputy foreign minister.
It had taken part in a naval drill organized by India between Feb. 18 and 25.
Central Command officials have confirmed the US has struck or sunk more than 20 Iranian ships.
With Post wires
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