US kills dozens of Iranian sailors returning from India in 'first torpedo strike since WW2'

At least 80 are dead and dozens injured or missing at sea, while 32 were rescued by the Sri Lankan navy  

News Desk - The Cradle 

A US military submarine attacked an Iranian naval vessel in the Indian Ocean on 3 March, killing at least 80 as the ship was returning from a maritime exercise in India. 

“Yesterday, in the Indian Ocean ... an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II,” US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday. 

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine called the attack an “incredible demonstration of America’s global reach.”

The Iranian warship, IRIS Dena 75, issued a distress call before it sank. The Sri Lankan navy rescued at least 32 out of 180 Iranian sailors who were on board. 

“When we went there, we could not see the trace of the ship,” said Sri Lankan navy spokesman Buddhika Sampath. “We found oil patches and life crafts.”

At least 80 people are dead, while dozens of others were injured or are missing at sea. 

The attack comes as Iran has been launching non-stop drone and missile operations against Israeli targets and US bases in the Gulf, in response to the war launched by Washington and Tel Aviv against Tehran days ago.

As a result of Tehran’s strikes on the Gulf, US warships have been docking in Indian ports, according to retired US Army colonel Douglas MacGregor.

Meanwhile, the violent and indiscriminate US-Israeli airstrikes on Tehran and other parts of the country persist. 

Nearly 1,000 Iranians have been killed since the war began. At least 180 schoolgirls were killed by a US-Israeli attack on a school in southern Iran’s Minab on 28 February.

According to an investigation released by Al Jazeera on 3 March, the massacre was a deliberate effort to cause maximum civilian casualties.

“If the intelligence was up to date enough to spare a clinic that had been open for only one year, how did it fail to identify an elementary school that had been separated from the military complex and had become a clearly defined civilian institution for more than 10 years?” the report said.