India Offered Refuge to Iranian Frigate Before U.S. Navy Sank It

The sinking of the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena was a matter of great sensitivity for India, as the warship had just attended an international naval exercise at New Delhi's invitation. The vessel's loss was more sensitive still because she had been offered Indian refuge from the war, foreign minister S Jaishankar said Monday.

IRIS Dena was under way off the coast of Galle in southern Sri Lanka on March 4 when she was torpedoed by a U.S. Navy submarine. The blast lifted Dena's stern out of the water and broke her keel, sending her quickly below. As is standard in submarine warfare, the attack sub departed without intervening to assist survivors; Sri Lankan responders pulled 32 survivors and 87 bodies from the water.

On March 1, just as hostilities between the U.S. and Iran were getting under way, India had granted permission to a request from Iran for Dena and two other ships to moor at an Indian port. The support ship IRIS Laval pulled into Kochi and reached the safety of an Indian naval facility on March 4, Jaishankar said. Dena was sunk the same day, and support ship IRIS Bushehr sought refuge in Sri Lanka on March 5.

It is unclear why Dena departed India and did not seek safety, especially when the U.S. was actively attacking Iranian Navy vessels in the Mideast. To date, U.S. forces have destroyed more than 30 Iranian warships, and the strikes continue: On Monday, social media footage emerged showing the destruction of a Shahid Soleimani-class corvette at Bandar Landeh. A headline-worthy event on its own in peacetime, the latest attack on an Iranian warship was a footnote in the broader war, unreported by mainstream media.

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The US Navy struck three Iranian vessels in the Persian Gulf: two anchored off Bandar Lengeh, including the Haj Qasem, and one at Bandar Kong. Three IRGC patrol boats were sheltering among cargo vessels at Bandar Lengeh and were also struck multiple times, with secondary… pic.twitter.com/VBvnZMuB8P
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