The United States has sunk an Iranian warship using a submarine for the first time since World War II, marking a major escalation in the conflict with Iran.
Speaking during a press conference at the Pentagon, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that “an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters” off the coast of Sri Lanka.
“It was sunk by a torpedo, a quiet death…” he said.
It is the first time in more than 80 years that a country has sunk an enemy warship with a submarine. US Central Command said it has now “struck or sunk” more than 20 Iranian ships, sending them “to the bottom of the ocean.”
Mr Hegseth declared: “The Iranian air force is no more. The Iranian navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf.” He added that, as US President Donald Trump said, “more and larger waves are coming.”
“We are just getting started. We are accelerating, not decelerating,” Mr Hegseth said, adding Iran “are toast, and they know it.”
President Trump said the US and Israel were in a “very strong position” and would “continue forward” against Iran.
“We’re doing well on the war front, to put it mildly… on a scale of 10… about a 15,” he said, adding: “We’re in a very strong position now, and their leadership is just rapidly going. Everybody that seems to want to be a leader, they end up dead.”
The escalation comes as NATO forces deflected a ballistic missile headed for Turkey, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling attacks on the ally’s sovereign territory “unacceptable” and pledging “full support from the United States.”
Iran has also threatened Israeli embassies worldwide, while missile barrages toward Israel continued, though the Israeli military said the number launched from Iran was declining.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s navy said it recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people after receiving a distress signal from the IRIS Dena in international waters.
Source: The Advertiser.
