WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has sparked a fresh wave of international condemnation after lightheartedly describing the destruction of Iranian warships as “fun,” even as details emerged of a high-profile torpedo attack off the coast of Sri Lanka that left scores of sailors dead.
Addressing the Republican Members’ Issues Conference in Florida, Trump claimed that US forces had neutralized 46 Iranian naval vessels since the recent escalation began. Describing the ships as “top-of-the-line,” the president recounted a conversation with a military official in which he questioned why the vessels were being destroyed rather than seized.
“I said, ‘Why don’t we just capture the ship? We could have used it. Why did we sink them?’” Mr. Trump told the laughing audience. “He said, ‘It’s more fun to sink them.’ They like sinking them better. They say it’s safer to sink them. I guess it’s probably true.”The president’s remarks appear to center on the March 4 sinking of the IRIS Dena, an Iranian Moudge-class frigate. The vessel was struck by a Mark 48 torpedo fired from a US fast-attack submarine in international waters, approximately 19 nautical miles off the southern coast of Sri Lanka.
The strike marked the first time a US submarine has used a torpedo to sink an enemy vessel since World War II. At the time of the attack, the frigate was reportedly unarmed and returning home after participating in the MILAN-2026 multi-nation naval exercises hosted by India.
According to Sri Lankan naval officials, at least 87 bodies have been recovered, while over 60 sailors remain missing and are feared dead. Only 32 survivors were rescued after the vessel sent out a frantic distress signal.
The optics of the strike were further amplified by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who confirmed the operation by sharing periscope footage of the sinking on social media, describing the event as a “quiet death.”
While the Pentagon has justified the strikes as a necessary measure to secure international waterways and neutralize Tehran’s “destabilizing” naval reach, critics argue the attack on an unarmed ship transiting far from the primary conflict zone constitutes a breach of international maritime law.
Human rights groups and legal experts have raised concerns over reports that US forces did not remain on the scene to assist in rescue operations, a potential violation of the Geneva Conventions.
Tehran has reacted with fury, condemning the attack as “unprovoked aggression” and an “atrocity at sea.” Iranian officials claim that US and Israeli strikes have targeted nearly 10,000 civilian sites during the broader conflict, reporting a total death toll exceeding 100 in recent naval engagements alone.
The escalation has also put regional powers in a difficult position. While India allowed a second Iranian ship, the IRIS Lavan, to dock in Kochi on humanitarian grounds, Sri Lanka has interned the IRIS Bushehr in Colombo, marking a rare instance of warship internment in a neutral country.
Domestically, the Trump administration faces mounting pressure from lawmakers who argue the expansion of hostilities into the Indian Ocean was conducted without explicit congressional approval, raising fresh questions regarding the War Powers Act.
