Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Thursday accused the United States of committing an “atrocity” after a US submarine sank the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Sri Lanka.
His remarks marked the first official acknowledgment by Tehran of the warship’s sinking amid the escalating conflict between Iran and the US.
‘US will come to bitterly regret’
Araghchi made the comment on X, saying “the US has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores.”
“Mark my words: The US will come to bitterly regret (the) precedent it has set,” he added.
Sri Lankan Navy recovers 87 bodies
A US submarine on Wednesday torpedoed and sank an Iranian warship in international waters off Sri Lanka’s coast when it was returning after participating in the Milan naval exercise, a multilateral wargame hosted by India.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, confirming the strike, said at a Pentagon media briefing that it was the first sinking of an enemy warship by a torpedo since World War II.
The Associated Press, quoting Sri Lankan Navy, reported that 87 bodies were recovered and that 32 people were rescued following the sinking of the warship IRIS Dena. “An American submarine sank an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo,” Hegseth said.
The incident marks a major escalation of the conflict between the US and Iran outside of the Persian Gulf and throwing up questions relating to maritime security in the Indian Ocean.
The Pentagon has also released a short video of the sinking of the Iranian frigate.
The US and Israel launched the war Saturday, targeting Iran’s leadership, missile arsenal and nuclear program while suggesting that toppling the government is a goal. But the exact aims and timelines have repeatedly shifted, signalling an open-ended conflict.
The war has killed more than 1,000 people in Iran, more than 50 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. The United Nations says 100,000 people fled the Iranian capital in the war’s first two days alone.
Source: India TV
--Agencies
