Iran-Israel war: The Indian Navy has rejected claims that it carried the responsivity to protect the IRIS Dena, the Iranian warship sunk by a US attack submarine in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka, killing 87 sailors onboard the vessel.
Was Indian Navy 'responsible' for protecting IRIS Dena?
Citing Indian Navy sources, Navbharat Times reported that IRIS Dena took part in the Milan 2026 multinational naval exercise which involved 42 ships and 29 aircraft from 74 countries. The maritime exercise concluded onboard Indian Navy's INS Vikrant.
The Iranian frigate also participated in India's International Fleet Review 2026, which took place between February 15 and February 25, and made a port call in Visakhapatnam, where its was hosted alongside dozens of warships from other nations.
According to the Navbharat Times report, while the naval exercise concluded on February 25, following which the navies of other participant countries left the Indian Ocean, the Iranian warship lingered in the region, and was attacked by the US, three days after the exercise ended.
Did IRIS Dena seek help from Indian Navy?
Citing naval sources, the report said that IRIS Dena did not seek assistance or shelter from the Indian Navy even after the Iran-Israel war broke out on February 28, while the warship roaming international waters for over eight days after the exercise in India concluded.
As per sources, the Indian Navy had no responsibility to monitor the Iranian ship's activities or to monitor its actions because India is not involved in the US and Israeli war against Iran.
Additionally, IRIS Dena was attacked by the US in international waters, where no country's law is applicable, according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which also mandates that countries are responsible for the protection of their naval assets.
Sources noted that escorting another sovereign country's warship is against convention, unless a formal request is made for the same, and since had not made any such request from the Indian government or the Indian Navy, the Iranian ship had to mount its own defense when it came under attack.
US torpedoes Iranian warship, first such attack since WWII
On Wednesday, United States Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed that an US submarine had sunk the Iranian warship "IRIS Dena", marking the first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since the second World War.
"In the Indian Ocean, an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II. Like in that war, back when we were still the War Department, we are fighting to win," Hegseth said.
US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, called the strike an incredible demonstration of America's global reach
"As the secretary showed the video, for the first time since 1945, a United States Navy fast attack submarine has sunk an enemy combatant ship using a single Mark 48 torpedo to achieve immediate effect, sending the warship to the bottom of the sea. I want to remind everybody that this is an incredible demonstration of America's global reach to hunt, find, and kill an out-of-area deployer is something that only the United States can do at this type of scale," he said.
What did Iran say?
Following the attack on IRIS Dena, Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said the Iranian frigate was a "guest of the Indian Navy" and was attacked without any warning or provocation.
"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. Mark my words: The US will come to bitterly regret precedent it has set," Araghchi said in a post on X.