Iranian sailors receive treatment in Sri Lanka after US submarine strike sinks warship

Iranian sailors who survived a United States submarine strike in the Indian Ocean are receiving treatment at a hospital in Sri Lanka’s southern port city of Galle, officials said on Thursday, a day after dozens were killed when an Iranian naval vessel was attacked.

Hospital authorities and navy sources said that 87 bodies were brought to the National Hospital in Galle after military rescuers responded to an early morning distress signal from the Iranian warship IRIS Dena on Wednesday.

Search operations for around 60 crew members who remain missing were set to continue on Thursday, officials added.

Thirty-two sailors rescued from the vessel were admitted to the hospital with relatively minor injuries and were expected to be discharged later in the day, according to authorities. Police personnel were stationed outside ward number 58 while doctors conducted routine rounds and nurses attended to the survivors.

The strike marks a significant expansion of the ongoing conflict, taking hostilities far beyond the Gulf region where US and Israeli forces have been carrying out attacks against Iran and Tehran has responded with missile and drone strikes.

Speaking at the Pentagon, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said an American submarine had targeted an Iranian warship operating in what he described as international waters.

“An American submarine sank an Iranian warship that believed it was safe,” he said. “Instead, it was struck by a torpedo — a quiet end.”

Footage released by the Pentagon and said to depict the attack shows a large explosion hitting the rear of the vessel, tearing apart the stern and lifting part of the ship out of the water before it began to sink.