More than 100 people are feared dead after a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, officials say.
The US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, confirmed Washington was responsible for the attack on the IRIS Dena, saying the vessel was destroyed by a torpedo and had been met with a “quiet death”.
It marks the first time a US submarine has sunk an enemy warship with a torpedo since the Second World War, according to the United States Department of Defense.
Sri Lankan navy and defence ministry sources said at least 101 people are missing, with several bodies already recovered from the sea.
Officials said the Sri Lankan Navy responded to a distress call from the Iranian ship early on Wednesday after it went down about 40km (25 miles) off the country’s southern coastline.
A navy spokesperson said documentation indicated around 180 people were on board at the time of the incident.
Survivors were “seriously injured” and have been taken to hospital in the southern port city of Galle, Sri Lanka’s foreign affairs minister, Vijitha Herath, said.
Video footage of the torpedo attack has been released by the US Department of War.
Speaking at a briefing on Wednesday, Mr Hegseth also said: “Iran tried to kill President Trump and President Trump got the last laugh.”
The sinking of the IRIS Dena comes amid escalating tensions, with the United States and Israel carrying out missile strikes on Iran for a fifth consecutive day.
Israel has also launched air strikes on Lebanon and deployed ground forces into the country’s south, following rocket and drone attacks on Israel by the armed group Hezbollah.
In a further development, Turkey said NATO air defence systems intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Iran as it approached Turkish airspace.
Meanwhile, the UK Government said a charter flight would be made available on Wednesday evening for British nationals seeking to leave Oman amid the growing regional conflict.
Sri Lanka has remained neutral in the conflict, calling for “restraint and de-escalation”.
Military action in the Middle East was a response to the threat posed to the US by Iran, the White House has said.
Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said: "This decision to launch this operation is based on a cumulative effect of various direct threats that Iran posed to the United States of America."
Leavitt defended the goals of the joint Israeli-US air war against Iran amid criticism that Washington has failed to provide evidence for the imminent threat that Tehran posed directly for the United States, while adding that Trump believed that the American people supported the war.
At a press conference, she also told reporters that US intelligence is monitoring reports that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran's slain supreme leader, has emerged as a frontrunner to succeed him.
She said: "We've seen those reports as well, of course, and this is something that our intelligence agencies (are) looking at. The truth is, we'll have to wait and see."
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's son Mojtaba has emerged as the frontrunner to succeed his late father as Iran's supreme leader after years spent forging close ties with the elite Revolutionary Guards and building influence in the clerical establishment.
