US sinks Iranian warship off Sri Lanka: Hegseth
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The news: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said that a US submarine used a torpedo to sink an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday,
The context: Speaking during a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday, Hegseth said: “An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo,” he said. “The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II.”
He added that the Iranian navy “rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf” and that it was “ineffective, decimated, destroyed…pick your adjective, it is no more.”
Sri Lankan officials have said that at least 80 people were killed in the US strike on the warship, while 32 of the crew were rescued and taken to a hospital in Galle.
Hegseth also gave updated expected timeframes for the conflict during the briefing, commenting that the US “could say four weeks, but it could be six, it could be eight, it could be three. Ultimately, we set the pace and the tempo.”
US General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said US strikes had destroyed more than 20 Iranian naval vessels during the conflict to date. Caine added that as US forces have established “localised air superiority,” along Iran’s southern coast, the US will begin to expand its control north.
Caine added that the number of Iranian ballistic missiles fired has fallen 86% since the war started, and has fallen 23% in the last 24 hours.
Referring to news that NATO air defences intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Iran before it entered Turkey’s airspace on Wednesday, Hegseth said he did not expect Turkey to trigger the Article 5 mutual defence clause.
Responding to questions on Iranian allegations that the US-Israeli strikes had mistakenly hit a girls primary school in Iran during attacks over the weekend, Hegseth said the matter was under investigation without providing any further details.
The sources: Department of War briefing, FT, Bloomberg, The Guardian
