Nato shoot down missile headed for Turkey while up to 87 people killed in torpedo attack off Sri Lanka’s coast
Iran rained missiles and drones on its neighbours while Washington prepared to expand its strikes – and boasted it has effectively sunk the Iranian navy.
In a media briefing, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth warned that Operation Epic Fury had “only just begun” as he announced a US navy submarine had destroyed the Iris Dena, an Iranian frigate, off the Sri Lankan coast.
“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death,” Mr Hegseth said.
He added that the US was prepared to sustain a long war with Iran, as even more US bombers and fighters arriving in the region.
“This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight,” he said. “We are punching them while they’re down. Our air defences and that of our allies have plenty of runway. We can sustain this fight easily for as long as we need to.”
Pete Hegseth said the US is prepared for a long war. Photo: AP
Sri Lankan authorities said up to 87 people had been killed in the torpedo attack and several survivors were taken to hospital.
Nato was separately forced to shoot down an Iranian ballistic missile headed for Turkey – the closest Tehran has come to a direct attack on a Nato country, which could drag Turkey and its allies into a collective response.
A Turkish official said the missile had been aimed at an unspecified military base in Cyprus but “veered off course”. The weapon had already passed over Iraq and Syria when it was shot down by Nato air and missile defence systems in the eastern Mediterranean.
Nato said it “stands firmly with all allies, including Turkey, as Iran continues its indiscriminate attacks across the region”. Turkey called for restraint to avoid further escalation.
Mr Hegseth downplayed suggestions that attacks on Turkey would trigger Nato collective defence clause, instead boasting that the US had “only just begun to hunt dismantle, demoralise, destroy and defeat” Iran’s capabilities. He also vowed to “avenge” the six US service personnel killed in the region since Saturday.
General Dan Caine, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, added that the US would now “begin to expand inland striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory”, claiming Iran was now firing far fewer missiles than it did at the outbreak of the conflict, claiming its capabilities appear diminished.
US Central Command head Admiral Brad Cooper said that US forces had struck over 2,000 targets across Iran since Saturday. There were nearly twice as many strikes first 24 hours of the conflict as on the first day of the war in Iraq in 2003.
Also yesterday, Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez once again criticised the US and Israel’s military actions in Iran, standing firm against fresh trade threats from Washington and warning that the Iran war risked “playing Russian roulette” with millions of lives.
President Trump on Tuesday threatened to end US trade with Spain because of Spain’s refusal to allow the US to use joint military bases in the country in its attacks on Iran.
“We are not going to be complicit in something that is bad for the world and is also contrary to our values and interests, just out of fear of reprisals from someone,” Mr Sanchez said in a televised address.
It is not clear how Mr Trump would cut off trade with Spain, a European Union member. The EU negotiates trade on behalf of all its 27 members.
Meanwhile, Iran launch more retaliatory strikes yesterday, with hundreds of drones targeting Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It insisted its attacks were directed at US interests and not directly at its regional neighbours.
Top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas said Iran’s government was making a strong case for its own demise by indiscriminately attacking its neighbours.
“Iran’s strategy is to sow chaos and set the region on fire,” she said.
Israel meanwhile said its forces hit targets across Iran for a fifth day. An Israeli F-35 fighter jet shot down an Iranian Yak-130 over Tehran. Israel’s air force said it had dropped 5,000 munitions on Iran since Saturday.
Iran’s Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, a government agency, claimed the death toll in Iran has now passed 1,000.
The UN also said it was “deeply disturbed” by the deaths of children, estimating 160 were killed when bombs fell on a girls’ elementary school in the southern city of Minab last Saturday.