- Sri Lankan authorities pulled the bodies of eighty-seven sailors from the Indian Ocean.
- Sixty-one crew members are still missing from the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena.
- Thirty-two Iranian sailors were saved when the ship sank.
Sri Lankan authorities have recovered from the Indian Ocean the bodies of 87 sailors from the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena 75, which was hit and sunk by an American submarine off the coast of the island nation. According to AFP, representatives of the Sri Lankan police and army informed about it.
It follows from the statements of the security forces that the search for the other 61 crew members who are missing continues. 32 Iranian sailors were rescued. A Sri Lankan foreign ministry source told local television that at least 80 people were killed in the attack.
The incident took place in the Indian Ocean. The frigate was returning to Iran from a port in eastern India. Immediately after the incident, it was assumed that at least 140 people were missing.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth he called the incident the first time since World War II that an American submarine had destroyed an enemy ship. He added that the American army attacked with the help of a torpedo. “A US submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean that its crew thought was safe in international waters,” Hegseth told a news conference in Washington.
“She was sunk by a torpedo instead. The first torpedo sinking of an enemy ship since World War II. As in that war, when we were still the War Department, we are fighting for victory,” Hegseth declared.
