Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said March 4 that the U.S. Navy sank an Iranian ship near Sri Lanka, killing dozens and marking another day of escalation in the U.S-Israeli war with Iran.
The ship, which was struck by a torpedo, was in international waters, according to Hegseth. He called it the first such sinking of an adversary’s ship since World War II. Multiple media reports have identified it as the IRIS Dena.
The Iranian vessel was hit off Sri Lanka’s southern coast, thousands of miles from Iran’s coastline and the Persian Gulf.
Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States also sank 20 ships in Iran’s navy. Among them was a ship named after one of the Islamic Republic’s most well-known commanders: Qasem Soleimani.
The prominent general served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2020, during President Donald Trump‘s first term in office.
“Last night, we sunk their prize ship, the Soleimani,” Hegseth said. “Looks like (Trump) got him twice,” he added.
At least 101 people were missing and 78 wounded after the U.S. attack on the Dena, sources in Sri Lanka’s navy and defense ministry told the Reuters news agency on March 4.
A Sri Lankan defense ministry spokesperson confirmed to USA TODAY that the country’s navy and coast guard have sent search-and-rescue teams to an Iranian ship that had sunk near its waters but was unable to provide further details.
The Department of War, formerly the Department of Defense, posted a video of the strike on one of the ships on social media on March 4, calling the torpedo hit a “quiet death.”
Contributing: USA TODAY’s Kim Hjelmgaard, Cybele Mayes-Osterman.