In Galle, in the south of Sri Lanka, where the rescued sailors from the Iranian frigate “Dena” torpedoed on March 4 were hospitalized.
“At least 101 people are reported missing and 78 others injured after a presumed submarine attack on an Iranian warship off the southern coast of Sri Lanka,” reported the newspaper Tamil Guardian on Wednesday, March 4, relying on sources from the Sri Lankan navy and Ministry of Defense confiding in Reuters.
According to these sources, “the ship could have been hit during a submarine attack.” Early in the afternoon, during a press conference, US Defense Minister Peter Hegseth acknowledged, according to the BBC, that the United States sank “an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters.” Without naming it, he said: “It was sunk by a torpedo.”
In his online statement, posted by SkyNews, Peter Hegseth stated that this is the “first enemy ship” the United States has sunk with a torpedo since World War II. His ministry then released images of the torpedo hitting the frigate.
With 180 people on board, the targeted frigate, the IRIS Dena, issued a distress call off the coast of Galle, at the southern tip of the island, according to the Sri Lankan newspaper Daily Mirror. “Immediately, the Sri Lankan navy and air force launched a rescue operation.” About thirty crew members were rescued and hospitalized, the Colombo newspaper added.
The ship was in that area, explained the Daily Mirror, after participating in the naval exercises Milan 26 organized by India in Visakhapatnam at the end of February. The Dena, considered “one of Iran’s most modern combat ships,” was commissioned in 2021 and, according to The Times of Israel, was equipped with heavy guns, surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles, torpedoes, and could carry a helicopter.
