US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth confirms US submarine sank Iranian warship off Sri Lanka; 80 reported dead

The IRIS Dena (hull number 75) is a Moudge-class guided-missile frigate of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy, built domestically at Bandar Abbas and commissioned into service in 2021.

The United States military carried out a strike that sank an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka’s coast, triggering a rescue operation for dozens of sailors, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed on Wednesday.

At least 80 people were killed in the strike, Sri Lanka's deputy foreign minister told local television on Wednesday, reported Reuters.

“A US submarine sank an Iranian warship off the southern coast of Sri Lanka,” Hegseth told reporters on Wednesday.

“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo.”

His remarks came hours after Sri Lankan authorities confirmed that an Iranian naval vessel had gone down in international waters in the Indian Ocean.

The strike prompted a distress call, after which Sri Lanka’s armed forces launched a search and rescue operation. Sri Lankan authorities said 32 people had been rescued so far and several bodies recovered from the sea.

Earlier, sources in Sri Lanka’s navy and defence ministry had said at least 101 people were missing after a submarine attack off the country’s Indian Ocean coast, but a navy spokesperson later rejected that figure as incorrect and declined to confirm the cause of the sinking.

The incident comes amid escalating hostilities between Washington and Tehran. On Tuesday, the United States Central Command said it had already sunk 17 Iranian warships and was on track to destroy Iran’s entire navy as part of the ongoing military campaign.