Rohit Kumar
NEW DELHI, March 4: At least 87 Iranian sailors were killed and many more are still “missing” while 32 have been rescued so far after a US submarine sank an Iranian warship IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday.
The warship, IRIS Dena, a Moudge class frigate, also came to India in 2024 to participate in the multilateral naval exercise MILAN, the same exercise’s 2026 edition from where it sailed home on Thursday when the US submarine attacked and sank it off the Sri Lankan coast.
While the US has not confirmed the number of dead, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the submarine strike and touted it as evidence of America’s global reach in its war on Iran. “An American submarine sank an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo,” Hegseth told reporters.
The US Department of War released a black and white video of what looked like a submarine periscope and an explosion in the distance. It is unprecedented for any military to release near realtime visuals of a submarine kill.
Sri Lankan authorities said bodies of 87 sailors had been recovered from the warship, adding that search was still underway for those missing, while 32 people who were among the 180 odd sailors on board the ship have been rescued.
Sri Lankan foreign minister Vijitha Herath, who informed parliament about the incident, said the navy received a distress call from the Iranian ship and launched a search and rescue operation with the support of the Sri Lankan air force in the Indian Ocean off the island’s coast. The US Defense Secretary confirmed that the Iranian ship had been sunk by a torpedo, calling it “quiet death.”
The Iranian warship likely did not detect the US submarine even in periscope depth, which spoke a lot about the capabilities of the American submarine’s tactics.
The Indian Navy in a statement on February 16 had said as one of the largest multilateral naval exercises in the Indo-Pacific, MILAN 2026 would bring together navies from across the globe to strengthen interoperability, maritime domain awareness, and collective response capabilities. The harbor and sea phases of the exercise focused on complex maritime operations including anti-submarine warfare, air defense, search and rescue, etc.
Nothing is known whether the US submarine had been tailing or observing the Iranian warship as it came to India to participate in MILAN 2026. Defense analysts have theorized that the US submarine may have been tracking the Iranian warship throughout its journey from Iran to India to participate in the exercise. It is common for navies to passively track others for intelligence gathering.
The IRIS Dena, is one of Iran’s newest warships. The frigate was the centrepiece of a two-ship international tour in 2023 that included port calls in countries including South Africa and Brazil. It was accompanied by the support ship IRIS Makran, a converted oil tanker.
Iran claimed total control of the key energy transit Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, the war’s fifth day, as Israel hit Iran with fresh strikes and advanced into Lebanon against Tehran-backed Hezbollah militants. As the war entered the fifth day, Israel launched fresh strikes on Iran and Lebanon, where state media report a Lebanese residential building was struck. The Israeli Army entered the southern Lebanon town of Khiam, Lebanese state media, as part of a ground incursion against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
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