From Fox News: Sri Lanka’s navy responded to a distress call from an Iranian warship, but found only oil slicks, empty life rafts and the bodies of sailors in the water after a U.S. torpedo strike sank the vessel in the Indian Ocean.
The Sri Lankan navy sent ships and planes on a rescue mission after receiving a distress signal from Iran’s IRIS Dena, which had 180 people on board, the country’s foreign minister, Vijitha Herath, told Parliament on Wednesday.
When Sri Lanka’s navy arrived, there was no sign of the ship, “only some oil patches and life rafts,” navy spokesman Cmdr. Buddhika Sampath said. “We found people floating on the water.”
Crews recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people, Sri Lanka’s navy said.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday morning that the Iranian vessel was a “prize ship” of Iran.
“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” he said. “Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II. Like in that war, back when we were still the War Department. We are fighting to win.”
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday, March 4, that the Navy has destroyed an Iranian warship, the first enemy vessel destroyed by a submarine since World War II. See more below. pic.twitter.com/hNOhBWDix9
— CGTN America (@cgtnamerica) March 4, 2026
The survivors are being taken to a hospital in Galle and the bodies are being recovered.
The U.S. Navy sank the Iranian warship Soleimani in the Strait of Hormuz in a separate incident.
“The Iranian navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf. Combat ineffective, decimated, destroyed, defeated. Pick your adjective,” Hegseth said. “In fact, last night we sunk their prize ship, the Soleimani. Looks like POTUS got him twice. Their navy, not a factor. Pick your adjective. It is no more.”
The ship was named for Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian general killed in a U.S. drone strike in January 2020 during President Donald Trump’s first term.
The US Department of Defense released video footage it says shows an Iranian warship being sunk by a US submarine off the southern coast of Sri Lanka, far from Iran, killing dozens of sailors and widening Washington’s pursuit of the Iranian navy https://t.co/JiTJGPNG0a pic.twitter.com/wxLq8QNQP2
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 4, 2026
We have only just begun to fight. pic.twitter.com/HI2mifVy4W
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) March 4, 2026
Read more at Fox News
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