A United States submarine sunk an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday. The incident occurred off the southern coast of Sri Lanka, far from the Persian Gulf where much of the current conflict has been concentrated.
Sri Lankan authorities confirmed that their navy rescued 32 Iranian sailors from the sinking vessel. However, officials say that as many as 148 crew members remain missing, with hopes of finding additional survivors fading as search operations continue.
The strike has prompted concern in Colombo and across the region, including in India, given that the incident occurred in international waters within Sri Lanka's search and rescue zone in the Indian Ocean.
Among those raising questions publicly is Sri Lankan Member of Parliament Namal Rajapaksa, the son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who said the incident has implications not only for Sri Lanka but also for the wider region.
"This is a serious concern for Sri Lanka and also the Indian Ocean, and I'm sure for India as well," Rajapaksa told NDTV. "The war is happening miles away and we can see movements in the Indian Ocean just 40 nautical miles from the Gulf in Sri Lanka."
Rajapaksa also said the Sri Lankan government must clarify whether it had prior knowledge of the operation.
"I think the government of Sri Lanka must answer to the people of Sri Lanka and to the rest of the world whether they were aware of this particular situation or this particular attack on this vessel or they were kept on guard," he said. "If they have been kept on guard then they have to bring this up with the relevant authorities and especially with the United States."
Rajapaksa added that transparency was essential if Sri Lankan authorities had been aware of the movements involved in the attack.
"And if not, if they were aware of this kind of movement in the Indian Ocean and also in the Sri Lankan economic zone or the EZ of the international waters, then the government must make sure that they inform this properly to the Sri Lankan people and also have a proper broader dialogue with the regional partners as well," he told NDTV.
Rajapaksa suggested that the Sri Lankan government should examine whether the operation had taken place without its knowledge.
"Yes of course, especially when it comes to the Indian Ocean because as we all know the Indian Ocean is something that is active at the moment compared to the Gulf region," he said. "So this is something that Sri Lanka should take very seriously."
He said that if Colombo had been informed of the US operation, it needed to explain why such information had not been disclosed publicly.
"If the government had a dialogue with the United States and they were aware of this particular action then they have to make sure why they kept it as a secret from the public and the parliament and how they got into that agreement," he said.
But he added that if the government had not been informed, that raised an even more serious concern.
"If not, how come such an operation takes place in our waters in the Indian Ocean without our knowledge?" Rajapaksa asked, adding that the incident should prompt regional discussions among South Asian nations.
"This is something I believe the government of India and also the South Asian region has to come together and look at and take this particular incident very seriously," he said.
When asked about the broader context of this ongoing war, Rajapaksa said history had shown the difficulty of predicting what follows major military interventions.
"We have seen this before from that part of the world if you look at Libya and if you look at Iraq and even Afghanistan," he said. "The question is what is after, what's going to happen after."
He said that while political leaders may pursue military objectives, smaller countries often bear the consequences.
"There are international laws and regulations that must be respected and each and every country's sovereignty must be respected and protected," Rajapaksa told NDTV. "This is about the national security of the Indian Ocean and about Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, the regional part of the world, Pakistan."
"So this is something that the region has to bring up together," he added.
The Strike
At a press conference in Washington on Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that the Iranian frigate had been destroyed by a US Navy submarine.
"An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo," Mr Hegseth said.
He described the strike as a demonstration of the United States' ability to target Iranian military assets globally during the ongoing war. Calling the operation a "quiet death", Hegseth said the attack highlighted the reach of American naval forces.
Senior US military officials said the strike was historically significant.
General Dan Caine, a senior American officer, said it was the first time since the Second World War that a US submarine had sunk an enemy ship.
The incident forms part of a wider US-Israeli military campaign against Iran that began on Saturday. According to the Pentagon, one of the central objectives of the campaign is to eliminate Iran's naval capabilities.
General Caine said US forces had already destroyed more than 20 Iranian naval vessels.
"We have destroyed more than 20 Iranian navy vessels and have effectively neutralized, at this point in time, Iran's major naval presence in theater," he said.
The Sinking Of IRIS Dena
Sri Lankan authorities identified the vessel as the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena.
According to Sri Lanka's foreign minister Vijitha Herath, the ship issued a distress call at dawn on Wednesday.
Within less than an hour, a Sri Lankan rescue vessel had reached the location. The incident occurred approximately 40 kilometres south of the southern port city of Galle. By the time Sri Lankan naval rescue boats arrived, the frigate had already sunk.
"The frigate had sunk and only an oil patch remained when the navy rescue boats approached," Herath told the Sri Lankan parliament.
The Sri Lankan navy immediately launched search and rescue operations. Two naval craft and an aircraft were deployed to search for survivors in the surrounding waters.
Officials say the operation is ongoing, though hopes of finding many additional survivors appear limited.
"We are keeping up a search, but we don't know yet what happened to the rest of the crew," a Sri Lankan defence official told nws agency AFP.
Sri Lankan navy spokesman Buddhika Sampath said the rescue operation was carried out under international maritime obligations.
"We responded to the distress call under our international obligations, as this is within our search and rescue area in the Indian Ocean," he said.
Sampath also confirmed that some bodies had been recovered from the area where the vessel sank.
"We have found a few bodies from the area where the ship had gone down," he said.
The 32 rescued Iranian sailors were transported to the main hospital in southern Sri Lanka. Security was tightened around the hospital as the injured crew members were brought in by Sri Lankan naval personnel.
from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/NqbicAE
