NEW DELHI (AP) — The United States and Iran have contrasting accounts of the sinking of an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean last week, with Washington rejecting Tehran’s assertion that the ship was unarmed and Iranian officials insisting the vessel was used for non-combat purposes.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command on Sunday rejected Iran’s claim that the USS IRIS Dena was unarmed when it was attacked by a submarine in international waters near Sri Lanka on March 4. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement on the X that Iran’s statement that the ship was unarmed was “wrong.”
The response came after strong opposition from Tehran, which has repeatedly described the warship as defenseless and said it was returning home after taking part in naval exercises.
An Indian navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, said the Iranian ship was not “completely unarmed” and was taking part in the drills with warships from other countries.
However, visiting ships participating in such events typically do not carry full combat loads of live ammunition unless a live-fire exercise is scheduled, some experts said. Even during the at-sea phase of the exercise, ships often carry only tightly controlled munitions limited to specific exercises, they said.
Rahul Bedi, an independent Indian defense analyst, said the ship may have used some limited non-offensive munitions during the naval exercise, but the agreement requires that “participating platforms must not carry weapons.”
“The prerequisite for participating in a parade like this or a ceremony like this is that it (the ship) is unarmed. This is a prerequisite for the Indian Navy and for most navies to conduct such similar fleet reviews,” Bedi said.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Friday that the warship sunk by a U.S. torpedo was not armed and accused Washington of targeting a ceremonial vessel.
“That ship came at the invitation of our Indian friends to take part in the international exercise. It was ceremonial. It was unloaded. It was unarmed,” he told reporters in New Delhi.
The IRIS Dena was sunk by a torpedo fired by a U.S. submarine in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka on March 4, according to U.S. and Iranian officials. The Sri Lankan Navy rescued 32 sailors and recovered 87 bodies.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described the IRIS Dena as a “trophy” and said it “died peacefully”. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described the attack as a “maritime atrocity” and stressed that it was “a guest of the Indian navy”.
Controversy over whether the ship was armed heightened tensions over the incident, which occurred as India returned from a multinational naval exercise, and raised questions about whether the ship was performing non-combat missions when it was attacked.
The Indian Defense Ministry said in a statement after the exercise that the ships participating in the exercise “also conducted live fire as part of surface artillery shells, as well as anti-aircraft fire.”
The sinking of the warship highlights that the war between the United States and Israel is spreading beyond the Middle East.
Two other Iranian ships – the IRIS Bushehr and the IRIS Lavan – docked in Sri Lanka and India after seeking assistance from both countries.
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Associated Press writer Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar, India, contributed to this report.
