Healthcare workers unload the bodies of Iranian sailors from a vehicle who died when their IRIS Dena warship sank outside Sri Lanka's territorial waters, in Galle, Sri Lanka, March 4, 2026. ERANGA JAYAWARDENE / AP
A torpedo fired by a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, whose navy said on Wednesday, March 4, that it recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people.
The Iranian vessel sunk in the Indian Ocean was the Islamic Republic's "prize ship," US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. It was one of the few instances of a submarine sinking a ship since World War II.
The sinking of the IRIS Dena illustrates a US-Israeli military operation against Iran that is stretching beyond its borders. US President Donald Trump has said one of the key objectives of the war is to wipe out Iran's navy.
"An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters," Hegseth said at a Pentagon news briefing. "Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo."
