An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has bragged. The war, started by the US and Israel with an unprovoked attack on Iran, is becoming globalised and maritime.
The Evening Standard said on 4 March:
It is the first time a US submarine has sunk an enemy warship since the Second World War.
Sri Lankan navy and defence ministry sources say at least 101 people are missing, according to Reuters, while a number of bodies have already been recovered.
Hegseth, who has said the war is being fought for Jesus, appeared to gloat to reporters that a US submarine had:
sunk an Iranian war ship that thought it was safe in international waters.
Instead it was sunk by a torpedo, a 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.
He said the ship was:
ineffective, decimated, destroyed…pick your adjective, it is no more.
US-Israel attacked Iran on 28 February without provocation. Iran was offering unprecedented concessions in negotiations at the time. The Pentagon has since stated there was no imminent threat from Iran. And the UN’s atomic watchdog, the IAEA, has said there is no evidence Iran was developing a nuclear weapon.
Air war to submarine sea war
Images and footage of the ship were posted on X by unverified open source accounts:
JUST IN: A submarine just attacked an Iranian ship off Sri Lanka’s coast.
101 people missing. 78 injured.
Sri Lanka. The Indian Ocean. This war just left the Middle East.
China and Russia are already providing Iran satellite intelligence. US bases destroyed. India now… pic.twitter.com/Fs09um5dKX
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) March 4, 2026
Video footage appeared to show the torpedo hitting the warship:
OVER 100 SAILORS ARE MISSING pic.twitter.com/wMqztCwnwU
— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) March 4, 2026
ITV News carried the same footage:
What started primarily as an air war is now spreading into the maritime domain.
Luca Nevola, a senior analyst for Yemen and the Gulf, told Al Jazeera:
What we are seeing in the past 48 hours is not just a symbolic threat environment. Multiple vessels have been directly impacted or targeted across separate maritime zones, including fatal and injury-producing incidents. That pattern alone is sufficient to trigger a behavioral shift among commercial operators.
He added:
From a security standpoint, the most important variable is whether these incidents remain clustered or become repeatable. ACLED data on maritime and cross-border activity in the Gulf show that escalation cycles often begin with limited, symbolic acts that test international response thresholds.
Neither the US nor UK have held any form of democratic vote on military action so far. Yet US and Israel-led war continues to accelerate at an alarming rate. Iran has said it has no intention of returning to the negotiating table.
Featured image via the Canary
By Joe Glenton
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