Iran has sharply criticised the United States after an American submarine sank an Iranian naval vessel in the Indian Ocean, calling the attack an “atrocity” and warning Washington it would “bitterly regret” the precedent set.Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the strike took place far from Iran’s territorial waters and condemned the targeting of the frigate Dena, which had recently participated in activities with the Indian Navy.
“The US has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores. Frigate Dena, a guest of India’s Navy carrying almost 130 sailors, was struck in international waters without warning,” Araghchi said in a post on X.“Mark my words: The US will come to bitterly regret precedent it has set,” he added.The US Navy sank the Iranian warship that was returning after participating in the Milan naval exercise, a multilateral wargame hosted by India. The lethal attack in the Indian Ocean reportedly killed at least 80 sailors.The strike came amid an intense wave of US and Israeli operations against Iranian targets. The pace of the attacks was so severe on Wednesday that Iranian state television said a planned mourning ceremony for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the start of the conflict, had been postponed. Millions had attended the funeral of his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in 1989.US President Donald Trump praised the American military’s performance in the conflict, saying it was “doing very well on the war front, to put it mildly.” Meanwhile, the conflict continued to spread across the region. Iran launched attacks toward Bahrain, Kuwait and Israel, while Turkey said NATO air defences intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Iran before it entered Turkish airspace.The fighting has already caused heavy casualties and widespread disruption. According to officials, the war has killed more than 1,000 people in Iran, over 70 in Lebanon, and around a dozen in Israel. It has also disrupted global oil and gas supplies, hampered international shipping routes and left hundreds of thousands of travellers stranded across the Middle East.
