Before Dena strike, Iran sailor told father US warned crew twice: Report

US forces issued two warnings to abandon the Iranian warship IRIS Dena, a sailor aboard the ill-fated ship told his father, according to a report by Iran International.

An Iranian sailor aboard the warship IRIS Dena told his father that US forces had issued two warnings asking the crew to abandon the vessel, according to a report by Iran International, offering a new account of the moments leading up to the American submarine attack near Sri Lanka.

The account contrasts with Iran’s earlier claim that the ship was struck without warning. Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi had earlier alleged that the frigate was attacked in international waters “without warning”, describing the strike as an “atrocity at sea”.

According to Iran International, the sailor, who was killed in the US strike, had called his father shortly before the attack and said US forces had warned the crew twice to leave the ship. However, the warship’s commander allegedly refused to allow the crew to abandon the vessel despite the imminent threat, the report mentioned, adding that some crew members reportedly argued with the commander before the strike.

The warship was torpedoed by a US submarine in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday, around 19 nautical miles off the southern Sri Lankan port of Galle, killing dozens of sailors. Sri Lankan authorities later launched a search-and-rescue operation after receiving a distress signal, recovering 87 bodies and rescuing 32 survivors.

Many of the survivors were sailors who managed to escape using lifeboats, as per the Iran International report.

The sinking of the Moudge-class frigate IRIS Dena marked a major escalation in the conflict between the United States and Iran. US War Secretary Pete Hegseth described the attack as delivering a “quiet death” via torpedo, noting that it was the first time since World War II that the United States had sunk an enemy warship using a submarine.