{"id":33091,"date":"2026-03-05T05:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T05:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/33091\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T05:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T05:22:08","slug":"us-submarine-sinks-iranian-warship-off-sri-lanka-87-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/33091\/","title":{"rendered":"US submarine sinks Iranian warship off Sri Lanka, 87 dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

A United States submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka, killing at least 87 sailors, amid the US-Israeli war against Iran.<\/p>\n

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Sri Lankan authorities said the vessel, identified as the IRIS Dena, went down about 40km off the country\u2019s southern coast after issuing a distress call. The navy recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 survivors. About 180 people were believed to have been on board.<\/p>\n

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US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the strike at a Pentagon briefing.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAn American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead, it was sunk by a torpedo.\u201d<\/p>\n


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\nScreenshot from a\u00a0video released by the US Department of Defense on March 4, 2026 showing\u00a0what the Department of Defense says is periscope footage of a US Navy submarine firing on and sinking an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean. Photo:\u00a0AFP \/ Lehtikuva
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The Pentagon released video which it said showed the moment of impact. The footage captured an explosion beneath the stern of a vessel, lifting the rear section out of the water before the ship broke apart and sank. Reuters<\/a> and the BBC<\/a> reported that the images matched the profile of the IRIS Dena, though the exact date of filming was not verified.<\/p>\n

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Sri Lanka\u2019s navy spokesman Commander Buddhika Sampath said rescue crews reached the scene after receiving the distress signal but found no intact vessel. \u201cWe found people floating in the water and rescued them,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cLater on, we found upon inquiring that they belonged to the Iranian ship.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The IRIS Dena had taken part in the Milan 2026 naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal, hosted by India from 18 to 25 February. The Indian Navy had posted images of the frigate arriving in Visakhapatnam, describing the visit as a sign of ties between the two countries. India\u2019s foreign ministry later rejected claims that US naval forces were using Indian ports during the conflict, calling such reports \u201cfake and false\u201d.<\/p>\n

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The sinking marks a further escalation in a war that began with joint US and Israeli strikes<\/a> on Iranian targets. The White House said US forces have struck or sunk more than 20 Iranian vessels since the campaign began. At least 17 Iranian naval ships have been destroyed, according to US Central Command.<\/p>\n

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Hegseth said the submarine attack was the first time since the Second World War that a US submarine had sunk an enemy ship with a torpedo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Iranian state media reported that the death toll from five days of air strikes across the country had exceeded 1,000, with more than 6,000 wounded. The figures were not independently verified.<\/p>\n

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The United Nations said about 100,000 people fled Tehran in the first two days of the bombing. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported no damage to facilities containing nuclear material, though it called for restraint to avoid a wider risk.<\/p>\n

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In Washington, the US Senate voted 52 to 47 against advancing a resolution that sought to limit President Donald Trump\u2019s authority to continue military action against Iran. The measure required 60 votes to proceed.<\/p>\n

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration aimed to destroy Iran\u2019s navy and ballistic missile capacity and to ensure Iran \u201ccan never obtain a nuclear weapon\u201d. She told reporters that Iran\u2019s leaders were \u201cpaying in blood\u201d for attacks on US interests.<\/p>\n

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The conflict has spread beyond Iran\u2019s borders. Israel launched a new wave of strikes across Tehran on Wednesday night, according to the Israeli military. Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at Israeli positions in response to Israeli air raids in Lebanon. Lebanon\u2019s health ministry reported 72 deaths since fighting resumed this week.<\/p>\n

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Sri Lanka has called for restraint and said it remains neutral. Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told parliament that the rescue operation took place outside Sri Lankan territorial waters but within its search and rescue zone.<\/p>\n

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HT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A United States submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka, killing at least…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[184,158,113,19370,18022,19368,19369,19371,17702,19373,8936,10361,17961,17958,19372,19367],"class_list":{"0":"post-33091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-helsinki","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-finland","10":"tag-helsinki","11":"tag-indian-ocean","12":"tag-iran-conflict","13":"tag-iranian-warship","14":"tag-iris-dena","15":"tag-israel-strikes","16":"tag-middle-east-war","17":"tag-naval-strike","18":"tag-pete-hegseth","19":"tag-sri-lanka","20":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","21":"tag-tehran","22":"tag-us-senate-vote","23":"tag-us-submarine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116174896712320471","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}