COLOMBO, Sri Lanka—The initial notification that a U.S. submarine had sunk an enemy ship for the first time since World War II came in the form of a brief 5 a.m. email from the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to Sri Lanka’s maritime-rescue agency.
A ship was in distress about 20 nautical miles off the coast of the city of Galle.
It will deliver an Iranian missile frigate IRIS. By the time rescue workers reached the scene at 6 a.m. last Wednesday, it had slipped beneath the waves, leaving the 32 survivors and dozens of bodies floating in a layer of oil, many of whom had mysteriously broken leg bones.
Twelve hours later, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth filled the void. The Iranian warship was hit by a Mark 48 torpedo launched from an American submarine, bringing an explosive end to the relatively low-key visit.
Two weeks ago the crew – many of them cadets – had gathered in their summer white uniforms on a beachside promenade in the Indian port city of Visakhapatnam, enjoying the sun as part of a celebratory gathering of global navies that also included Russia and the US.
He toured the Taj Mahal, visited museums and posed for selfies with visitors.
The speed with which Dena reached the firing line shows how quickly the war in Iran escalated, spreading thousands of miles from Iranian nuclear facilities, which the US says were its primary targets. It also serves as a reminder of American military power and the Trump administration’s willingness to use it.
“I want to remind everyone that this is an incredible demonstration of America’s global reach,” said Gen. Dan Kaine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Hunting, finding, and killing an individual deployed out of the region is something that only the United States can do on this type of scale.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that America has committed atrocities and the example it has set will be deeply regretted.
As far as the Sri Lankans were concerned, they already had an idea of the path they would have to walk after the Trump administration rewrote the rules of global power politics.
Dena departed for India in mid-February despite the American military buildup near her home shores. India has invited the frigates to take part in its biennial military exercises with participants from dozens of navies. This year, Visakhapatnam was combining the exercise with a public fleet review chaired by Indian President Draupadi Murmu.
The festivities included a city parade, where a Dena sailor, speaking to Samson Sagar, a freelance journalist, was surprised by the taste of biryani, an Indian rice dish that he tasted. “very spicy!” The sailor said covering his face.
The hosts had arranged for the Iranian contingent to visit local sites. A highlight was INS Kursura, a Soviet-built, 300-foot submarine commissioned by the Indian Navy in 1969 that was converted into a museum ship. About two dozen of Dena’s sailors emerged through a temporary door cut into the side of Kursura’s hull, passing through a forward compartment equipped with six compressed-air launch tubes and a storage rack containing additional bright green torpedoes.
The naval gathering itself was a relic of an earlier era, when rival armies could co-exist under the protection of a global order that prioritized stability above all else. Admiral Steve Kohler, Commander, US Pacific Fleet, attended and met Indian leaders. The US sent a P-8A Poseidon spy plane but decided not to send a destroyer as before. Dena was part of Iran’s regular navy, not the more ideological Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy.
The program ended on the morning of 25 February. The next day, the Iranian Embassy in Sri Lanka, 800 miles south, asked for permission to dock Dena and two other naval ships for a goodwill visit beginning on 9 March.
The ships were already close to Sri Lanka’s maritime border, raising concerns among some officials in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo. Given the strong possibility of conflict breaking out between the US and Iran, the request for a goodwill visit from the ships seemed potentially risky to the island nation.
“We all know that there was a certain build-up in the Arabian Sea and the region,” said Sri Lankan Defense Secretary and retired Air Vice Marshal Sampath Thuyakontha. “It’s a very complex situation.”
The Sri Lankans stopped for time. The Iranian ships had been loitering – “loitering”, in the words of Sri Lanka’s Deputy Foreign Minister – since the US and Israel launched their first strikes on 28 February. Thuyakontha said Sri Lanka told the Iranians that Sri Lanka would abide by the 1907 treaty, which states that neutral parties should allow warring naval vessels to dock only if there is an emergency on board the ship.
The three Iranian ships started running here and there to find safe harbor elsewhere. The next day, India approved Iran’s request to dock the three ships, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said.
Did not go to give. For unknown reasons, it was still trying to make port in Sri Lanka till last Tuesday.
Early the next day, an American nuclear attack class submarine launched a 21-foot, 3,700-pound torpedo with a 650-pound warhead toward Dena. Due to this collision, the hull of the ship broke and a plume of water spread about 100 feet in the air. Shortly thereafter, the Sri Lankan people received an email from the US Army.
International law requires belligerents to render aid to sailors of ships injured or damaged in battle. Submarines can claim exemption if they are in danger from the surface or the number of people requiring rescue is very large, but in that case they must provide for rescue by other means.
Sri Lankan Air Force helicopters flew over the water to look for signs of life. The US email did not say that the ship was attacked, but the footage found by rescuers points to one scenario.
Defense Secretary Thuakontha said, “Clearly this is an attack.” “But we didn’t know whether it was a torpedo or an airstrike.”
The Sri Lankan Navy evacuated survivors to nearby Galle, famous for its 16th-century Dutch fort. Ambulances with police escorts roamed the streets, taking the injured from the beach to the local hospital, where doctors and nurses rushed out to receive the injured, said one person who was there.
As night fell, three cargo trucks brought more than 80 bodies wrapped in white plastic to the hospital. Employees wearing hazmat suits removed the bodies under the supervision of a medical officer. When a large number of dead people gathered from the mortuary, local people brought ice to the hospital.
Religious leaders of the local Muslim community came forward to help. MZAS Mohammed, 76, head of the local branch of the body of Sri Lanka’s main Muslim theologians, had traveled to Iran years ago and was familiar with Iranian tastes. He knew the wounded sailors would want familiar food – not spicy Sri Lankan food – and lots of meat.
That night at 11 o’clock he arrived at the hospital with rice, 40 portions of chicken and a simple salad of cucumbers and onions.
Roshan Mawsoon, a member of the Galle Municipal Council, arranged clothing for the Iranians after the hospital director called to say that the sarongs and shirts donated to the hospital were not good for the Iranians, who were older than many Sri Lankans.
“They need XL, XXL,” he said.
Leaders in Colombo were concerned about how to handle the survivors.
Officials said the key priority was to send them back to Iran, but some were concerned how that could complicate the island’s relations with the Trump White House, weakening a fragile economy already hit by US tariffs. Sri Lanka’s Defense Secretary said that the country is obliged to ensure that the Iranians now under occupation do not get involved in the war.
When one of the Iranian ships accompanying Dena, the Bushehr, asked for permission to land in port on the day of Dena’s sinking, officials in Colombo discussed how to respond while maintaining Sri Lanka’s goal of remaining neutral in the conflict.
After Bushehr reported engine trouble, Sri Lanka allowed the ship to enter Colombo, where authorities picked up more than 200 sailors on Thursday.
Of the 32 sailors who survived the sinking of the Dena, 10 are still hospitalized, while 22 others have been discharged and transferred to a military base near Galle. The sailors from Bushehr are being kept at a separate base near Colombo. Sri Lanka on Sunday said all rescued sailors would be given one-month visas on humanitarian grounds.
A State Department spokesperson said, “What to do with the Iranians in its custody is for Sri Lanka to decide in accordance with its domestic law and international legal obligations.” He said the US’s ultimate goal is to reduce the risks posed by Iran.
“I think it’s too early to predict what will happen,” said Kaushalya Ariyaratne, Sri Lanka’s deputy information minister. “But I honestly want it to be over soon. I mean, oh God, I’m praying for it.”
Write to Trupti Lahiri Tripti.lahiri@wsj.comjosh chin at josh.chin@wsj.com And on Shan Lee shan.li@wsj.com
