Iran vows retaliation for 104 sailors killed in US attack on IRIS Dena in Indian Ocean: 'Will not go unanswered'

Healthcare workers carry the bodies of Iranian sailors who died in the US torpedo attack on their frigate IRIS Dena off Sri Lanka's southern coast, at the mortuary of the Karapitiya hospital in Galle on March 4.

• Iran vows retaliation after US sub sinks IRIS Dena, killing 104
• Sri Lanka repatriates remains of 84 Iranian sailors after attack
• IRIS Dena and Bushehr survivors held in Sri Lanka for repairs

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The killing of 104 crew members aboard the IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean "will not go unanswered", warned Amir Hatami, commander-in-chief of the Iranian army, on Saturday.

"The crew of the Dena destroyer had completed a peaceful mission and were targeted while on their way back to Iran," Hatami was quoted as saying by the state-run IRNA news agency.

"The name of Dena and the sacrifice of its crew will remain a symbol of courage and dedication in Iran’s naval history. The army will defend Iran’s maritime borders and strengthen its naval power with even greater determination," he noted.

The warning comes days after a US submarine attack on the IRIS Dena on March 4, which torpedoed the frigate off the coast of Sri Lanka while it was returning from a naval exercise organised by India.

                                                                       Iran Navy frigate IRIS Dena at sea. (File photo)

According to US military officials, it was the first US submarine sinking of an enemy ship since World War II. They claimed that more than 20 Iranian naval vessels have now been neutralised in the ongoing conflict.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth described the strike as evidence of America’s global reach and called it a "quiet death".

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka repatriated the remains of 84 Iranian sailors on March 13.

The bodies were transported in sealed boxes aboard a chartered Airbus A340 from Mattala International Airport in southern Sri Lanka, following autopsies at Karapitiya Hospital in Galle. The 32 sailors who survived the attack remain in Sri Lanka, with 22 discharged from the hospital and held at a local air force base.

A second Iranian warship, the IRIS Bushehr, was granted safe harbor in Sri Lankan waters a day after the Dena was sunk, with its crew of 219 held at a naval camp north of Colombo while repairs were made to one of its engines. Another vessel, IRIS Lavan, sought refuge in India’s Kochi port, where all 183 crew members remain in custody.

Both Colombo and New Delhi said the sheltering of Iranian sailors was done for "humanitarian considerations", amid fears of further US strikes.

Separately, Sri Lankan authorities carried out search and rescue operations following the Dena attack. The frigate had issued a distress call at dawn, and rescue vessels reached the area 40 kilometers south of Galle. Officials recovered only an oil patch where the ship had sunk, with 32 crew members rescued, while hopes of finding more survivors remained low.