Item in Al-Jazeera, 4 March 2026, with this headline “US submarine sank Iran’s warship off Sri Lanka coast, says Hegseth”
Sri Lanka says it recovered several bodies and rescued 32 wounded sailors after the frigate sank just outside the island’s territorial waters.
A United States submarine has sunk an Iranian warship with a torpedo in international waters off Sri Lanka’s coast, says US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. In a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday, Hegseth said the strike on the Iranian warship was the “first such attack on an enemy since World War II”.
Authorities told Al Jazeera the frigate IRIS Dena, located about 40 nautical miles (75km) off Galle in southern Sri Lanka, sent out a distress call between 6am and 7am (00:30 to 01:30 GMT). The ship had about 180 crew members on board, and a search and rescue operation was continuing, Sri Lankan officials said.
The Iranian frigate was returning from having taken part in the 2026 International Fleet Review last month in eastern India’s coastal city of Vishakapatnam.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told parliament that the navy received information that the ship was in distress and the government sent ships and air force planes on a rescue mission.
A Sri Lankan navy spokesperson said no other ship or aircraft was observed in the area where the Iranian warship sank.
Reporting from outside a hospital in Galle, where the wounded crew members were taken, Al Jazeera’s Minnelle Fernandez said an Iranian embassy official in Colombo said two officers have been sent to Galle “to talk to the survivors to get a sense of what might have happened on the ship”.
The warship’s sinking occurred as the United States and Israel conduct air strikes on Iran for a fifth day after killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and nearly 800 other people, including dozens of schoolgirls.
Tehran has responded with drone and missile attacks on Israel and US-linked assets in Gulf countries, causing multiple deaths. Six US service members have been killed and many others injured.
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