By Agrim Agrawal
Early on Wednesday, an Iranian naval frigate in international waters off the southern coast of Sri Lanka was sunk by a United States submarine that killed dozens of sailors and sent dozens more missing in an incident that highlights the expanding maritime aspect of the ongoing war between Iran and Israel.
Pentagon officials verified the strike in a briefing on March 4, when Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the Iranian ship had been sunk by an American torpedo fired by an American sub in the Strait of Hormuz. The operation, according to him, was part of larger moves by the United States and its allies to undermine the Iranian naval power as hostilities in the region were mounting.
The U.S. officials claimed that the Iranian warship had been going about with the assumption that it was not within the immediate theatre of war. Hegseth claimed that the ship thought it was safe in international waters, but in current military activity in the Indian Ocean, it spotted and targeted the target and engaged it.
It was reported to be the IRIS Dena, a frigate in the Iranian Navy, that was approximately 40 nautical miles off the coast of Galle when the strike was carried out between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. local time. The ship sent out a distress signal soon after the attack, after which it went under the water.
According to the maritime officials, the frigate had just come back after attending International Fleet Review that was conducted in India last month, where multinational naval ships of various nations were involved. The fact that the Iranian ship was in the region indicates that it must have been sailing along global shipping routes in the Indian Ocean when it was picked.
Immediately after receiving the distress signal, the navy of Sri Lanka undertook search and rescue efforts. Even though the island country is not part of the war, its maritime authorities reacted as per international requirements to help the vessels in distress in the waters.
The naval patrol and rescue teams got 32 survivors out of the sea, most of whom were injured in the explosion and the consequent sinking of the ship. Some of them were taken to hospitals in the southern coast of Sri Lanka, with the medical authorities stating that at least one of them was in critical condition and others were under emergency care.
The government has also confirmed that 87 bodies have been recovered and 61 members are still missing, raising the possibility that the eventual number of those killed could be more since the search is still underway.
Before rescue ships could arrive at the site, the frigate had already settled on the bottom with its debris scattered around and an oil spill that continued to expand over the place the ship had sunk.
According to the Pentagon, the strike is a component of an ongoing U.S.-Israeli campaign to cripple Iranian naval capabilities as the conflict reaches a new level in various fronts. According to American authorities, there are at least 17 Iranian ships that were destroyed over the course of the conflict as part of a transition to the maritime activities in the course of other air and missile attacks.
To Sri Lanka, the incident underscores the susceptibility of neutral states that are located along major maritime routes. The waters around the island lie on one of the most active shipping routes in the world and are therefore especially sensitive to military events in the rest of the Indian Ocean.
Strategic analysts opine that the sinking of the IRIS Dena depicts how the war that was initially focused in the Middle East is gradually extending to the international sea routes. With frictions no longer happening within the conventional theatres, the threats to business shipping, stability of the region and neutral countries found along major sea routes are bound to increase.