I heard all about the American torpedo attack that sunk the Iranian frigate, Dena, in the Indian Ocean. I couldn’t miss it — multiple channels on YouTube were replaying the footage over and over again. There’s an Iranian warship sailing along, when suddenly it was struck in the stern by a massive explosion that lifted the vessel out of the water, breaking it’s back and leading to its rapid sinking. It was glorious war footage, I guess.
Then Pete Hegseth is on all the news, bragging about the victory and all those dumb, blind Iranian sailors who met their fate at the hands of the brave American navy.
At least 87 sailors were killed in the torpedo attack in international waters in the Indian Ocean, and the Sri Lankan navy responded to the Dena’s distress call and rescued 32 survivors, but 61 members of the crew are still missing. The U.S. didn’t respond to the call, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth crowed about the attack to reporters on Wednesday.
“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo,” Hegseth said, calling it a “quiet death.” As a result of the attack, an Iranian supply tanker that was also near Sri Lanka, the IRIS Bushehr, has taken refuge in the island country.
The news stories, until now, didn’t mention one horrible, ignoble fact.
The U.S. Navy’s attack on an Iranian frigate, the IRIS Dena, on Wednesday was the first time an American submarine has sunk an enemy ship since World War II. But the Dena may not have been armed because it was returning from an international exercise in the Indian Ocean, and the U.S. Navy likely knew it because it was taking part in the same exercise.
Both the United States and Iran were taking part in the MILAN 2026 exercise, organized by the Indian Navy, on February 15–26, with the U.S. sending a maritime patrol aircraft and Iran sending the Dena. Iranian sailors from the ship paraded on land before India’s president.
The exercise in question required ships not to carry any ammunition. Normally, the Dena carries various missiles and guns, including anti-ship missiles. Because the U.S. also took part, it would have been aware that the Dena was unarmed. Former Indian Foreign Minister Kanwal Sibal accused the attack of being “premeditated as the US was aware of the Iranian ship’s presence in the exercise.”
To add to the United State’s shame, the IRIS Dena immediately sent out a distress call; the Sri Lankan navy responded to rescue survivors. The American navy, despite obviously having a ship nearby, ignored the SOS.
Pete Hegseth is a motherfucking chickenshit coward. “Warfighter,” my ass.
I recently saw a video about the average time to sink a warship in WWII with a torpedo, from first hit to final sinking. It was about 2 hours. So 2 hours to get a few hundred to thousands of sailors into lifeboats or in a position to swim away, and even then, many are likely to die. It’s a horrible way to go.
I had an uncle in the navy in WWII. He was a cook (his name was not Steven Seagal.) He had two ships sunk under him in the war. I never had the opportunity to talk to him about it, but it must have been terrifying.
It gets worse. A lot worse.
The USA managed to destroy a girl’s school in Iran with our bombs.
The death toll was high at around 150 girls dead.
A war crime and an atrocity.
This war is already going off the rails and heading for someplace between failure and darkness.
.1. It is starting to look like a long war. The Pentagon is planning until September, 6 months away.
Trump posted this today.
Iran is a large country with a large population of 93 million.
There is no way we can get unconditional surrender without invading Iran and occupying Tehran.
We did that in Iraq. It cost us a 9 year war that cost $ 2 trillion, 4,500 US lives, over 100,000 Iraqi lives, and lead to the rise of ISIS.
This 4 week war is starting to look like a 4 year war.
.2. Oil is up sharply in the last few days.
Today it is $92/barrel, up from $68 a barrel a week or so ago.
I see gasoline in the SF Bay Area at $5.00 a gallon. Ouch.
A lot of the MAGAs favor the current oversized pickups with large engines and large fuel tanks.
A Ford F-150 or Chevrolet Silverado can have gas tanks that hold 30 gallons.
To fill up their pickup today is going to cost $150.
They aren’t going to be happy about that.
And, it might go even higher. Depends on how long this war lasts and the Strait of Hormuz stays closed.
The exercise in question required ships not to carry any ammunition. … Because the U.S. also took part, it would have been aware that the Dena was unarmed.
Who wants to make a bet that the participating US aircraft had no ammo on board?
PZ wrote: Pete Hegseth is a motherfucking chickenshit coward. “Warfighter,” my ass.
I reply: But, he IS the most revered symbol and model of this current motherfucking chickenshit cowardly tRUMP administration!
The Animals 1965: ‘we gotta get out of this place’
The USA managed to destroy a girl’s school in Iran with our bombs.
The death toll was high at around 150 girls dead.
Don’t forget that there are plenty of other atrocities that are too individually “small” to get real press coverage. A co-worker of mine lost her aunt over there in the initial attack last weekend. Whole house just completely leveled by a bomb, like something out of the Blitz.
.2. Oil is up sharply in the last few days.
This kinda makes you wonder again about the Trump-Russia axis. Low(-ish) oil prices have been hitting them pretty hard, so Trump’s little Iran war is fantastic news for Putin. Every dollar it adds to the price of oil is umpteen more Ukrainians he can murder.
Apparently there’s a critical shortage of anti-drone interceptors and anti-missile missiles in US stockpiles and this was a known problem last year. That’s going to lead to a lot of deaths of US military personnel and civilians.
“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship”
Mr Hegseth, the correct word is “sank”. Didn’t you learn anything at school?
It is undeniable that the U.S. submarine that fired the torpedo departed the scene without surfacing to pull survivors from the water.
(https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3081&context=ils)
Published by the Stockton Center for International Law
ISSN 2375-2831
Annotated Supplement to the
Commander’s Handbook on the
Law of Naval Operations
The Australian PM while supporting the murder of Iranian schoolgirls has refused to commit the Australian military to assist in the slaughter. Yet the US is using its intelligence and communications base Pine Gap which is on Australian soil to carry out its strikes. Also Australian service personnel are serving on exchange and training with the US military, including on the submarine that sank the Iranian frigate. The PM assures us that they weren’t involved. I guess they must have just been passengers.
#3: OK, we surrender, unconditionally.
We will surrender our leaders for you to treat appropriately.
#3 raven,
“To fill up their pickup today is going to cost $150.
They aren’t going to be happy about that.”
maybe they can protest by slapping stickers of trump pointing & saying ‘i did that!’ on every gas pump
I’m surprised that the sub didn’t surface and machine gun the survivors.
#9 John Morales:
“This section does not apply to public vessels.” 21
Public vessel, in maritime law, being a warship operated by a government. So the law, immoral as it may be, lets them off the hook.
Hegshit may be a warfighter but a completely incompetent one. The jets show down by our so-called allies on the first day were lost because someone forget to tell our allies we were at war. When you put bozos in charge, you have a circus.
Perhaps they should go back to Signal chats so everyone knows what the fuck they think they’re up to.
Hegshsit and the rest of that gang are warmongers.
Robert, I for sure am no expert.
I’ll take your word for it.
(But even if the sub didn’t have to do some rescuing, it could have, no?)
John & Robert — I don’t know what the current “rules of war” spell out, but in 1941 when the British finally caught up with the Bismark and damaged her so badly that the Germans abandoned ship, the Brits managed to rescue 110 men from the water. They stopped operations because there were reports of German submarines in the area.
jack lecou@6–
BBC: US eases sanctions on Russian oil sales to India during Iran conflict
So, yeah.
coffeepott @12
You beat me to it. I just fueled up today and noted the lack of a sticker of Trump pointing out the price on the pump. There were plenty of Biden stickers. My fuel mileage is ok thankfully, but still.
In WWII, as has already been pointed out, once the Bismarck had been sunk the British ships at the scene rescued survivors until they received reports of submarines in the area.
The sinking of the Dena, the failure of the US Navy to meet their legal and professional responsibility to render assistance and the attack on the girls school are potential war crimes and the officers and men responsible should face a court-martial. Unfortunately, while this corrupt administration and Congress still hold power, this is highly unlikely to happen. I just hope that, if the Democrats regain power in the midterms, they find the backbone to actually do something about it rather than just talk,
Article 41 – Safeguard of an enemy hors de combat
A person who is recognized or who, in the circumstances, should be recognized to be ‘ hors de combat ‘ shall not be made the object of attack.
A person is ‘ hors de combat ‘ if:
(a) he is in the power of an adverse Party;
(b) he clearly expresses an intention to surrender; or
(c) he has been rendered unconscious or is otherwise incapacitated by wounds or sickness, and therefore is incapable of defending himself;
provided that in any of these cases he abstains from any hostile act and does not attempt to escape.
When persons entitled to protection as prisoners of war have fallen into the power of an adverse Party under unusual conditions of combat which prevent their evacuation as provided for in Part III, Section I, of the Third Convention, they shall be released and all feasible precautions shall be taken to ensure their safety.
— Geneva Conventions of 1949, Additional Protocols and their Commentaries
Gavin Newsom…or someone in his name…posted a meme about Trump being charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court or some such. Not true, of course, but I think he’s eligible, as well as several of his main advisors: JD, Hegshit, Miller, maybe Rubio although he hasn’t been very prominent in this fiasco. If he did get charged for some such, perhaps they can mock up a statue to give him, like a gallows. He would probably gloat about him.
The attack on Iran itself was undoubtedly illegal under international law. Specifically, it violates the conditions the UN Charter places on the resort to war, which it permits only with the approval of the UNSC, or when a state has been attacked or an attack on it is imminent. Hence everything US forces have done in the way of attacking Iran or its assets (such as the Dena) is a war crime. And also a crime under US law, since treaties ratified by the Senate have the status of US federal law.
The “imminent attack” exception may be the reason Rubio made that bizarre statement that the USA attacked because it knew Israel was about to do so, and concluded that Iran would retaliate against American bases; he was claiming an attack was imminent. Even if true, this no more meets the conditions imposed by the Charter than you could legally assault someone because your pal was about to do so, and that might provoke their victim to hit you. In any case, Trump repudiated the claim, presumably because this shifted the “glory” from him to Netanyahu; he claimed the USA forced Israel into attacking, not vice versa.
do according to the terms of the exercise, we were supposed to be unarmed as well, right? did i get that right?
The attack on Iran is obviously illegal.
The attack on an Iranian warship wouldn’t be if the war were legal. It’s still a military vessel, even if not currently armed.
The attack on a school is complicated. Bombing a school full of kids that the military planners know is full of kids is clearly illegal. Bombing a building that happens to be a school full of kids, if the planners are trying to avoid doing that but they just suck at their jobs, that is not necessarily illegal under humanitarian law (which is the laws about who you’re allowed to kill in a war — military types love euphemisms).
Whether it’s illegal or not is pretty much irrelevant though. A hundred-ish girls are dead either way. And the people responsible aren’t getting charged either way, because the US operates under the rule of might makes right.
the only “good” to come out of this so far is Putin gets more money for his oil but probably not many more drones from Iran.
We, including the colonial British industrial powers, have been f’n with Iran since a long time even before 1953 events.
They have resulted in the situation we have now. It takes some real stupidity and arrogance to think it will turn out different this time, two pees in a pot, bibi and the orange asshole with the helpful management of pete head-skiff and a bunch of christian nationalist will surly this time will ………………….?
[OT]
unclefrogy, Russia manufactures most of its Shaheed-design drones these days.
And Ukraine needs the Patriots that are being wasted on drones from Iran against the missiles that keep hitting it, so they are seeking to send teams with their hardware to deal with them in exchange.
Alas, the US apparently believes that it can destroy the drone factories and supplies with big booms before it runs out of Patriots, so it’s using those $million interceptors in quantity to destroy $10k drones.
So it goes. USA spending on the order of $1B per day and using up its stocks of interceptors.
(Trump is not cluey, but the military is)
(Also, USA is pressuring Ukraine because Ukraine was attacking the port that handled oil sent from Khazakstan from facilities owned by Big Oil US firms)
BTW (headline speaks for itself):
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/mar/07/us-considers-lifting-more-sanctions-on-russian-oil-as-iran-conflict-sees-global-prices-surge
robro@22
If Trump or anyone else involved with this war is tried in The Hague, they already have their plans laid out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Service-Members%27_Protection_Act
There were three Aussies aboard the submarine that sank the Dena too -something that po9llies here first refused to admit before fessing up to.
Aerticle here examines the questions of :
Source : https://theconversation.com/the-us-sank-an-iranian-warship-and-didnt-rescue-the-survivors-is-this-legal-in-war-277606
@ ^ Although the thing is the Dena was unarmed and thus effectively defenceless and alone so there was nothreat to the submarine that sank it. It occurs to me that the sub could’ve surfaced, told the Iranian crew they were going to be torpedoed -radio or voice command – and given themn to abanodn ship using their own lifeboats saving all the crews lives before sinking it. Dunno why it wouldn’t occur to them too so the choice to sink it without warning was pretty fucking murderous really.
The captain of the submarine needs to be brought up on war charges and tried in international court.
Remember the Nazi dodge, “Only following orders.” Didn’t cut it in Nuremberg and shouldn’t cut it now.
This madness will continue so long as the minions act as if they have no accountability which, unfortunately, is the case at the moment.
Yeah, this was basically cold blooded murder of 87 people. Firing a torpedo at an unarmed and defenseless ship a long way from the war zone.
I do have to ask here, why was this Iranian ship heading for Iran from India? They were obviously caught away from home when the war started.
Another Iranian navy ship in the area immediately learned the lesson and docked at Sri Lanka.
This makes sense. It was a tanker supply ship. It would be certain death to be caught in international waters now.
So, why was this Iranian frigate trying to go home? They were never going to make it anyway since a huge number of American navy ships are between them and Iran.
This was a huge mistake on the Iranian’s part. They should have immediately docked in India or Sri Lanka and left their ship there. Which is what the other ship promptly did.
This has been the pattern of the Islamic Iranian dictatorship’s rule of Iran since they gained power. Incompetent. Not smart, Oppressing their people, collecting enemies in the region, while holding Iran back.
It is almost like fascist dictatorship’s aren’t a good form of government.
The economy and everything else is run for the benefit of the ruling oligarchies and not for the benefit of the country or the vast majority of the citizens of that country.
(That last statement could just as well apply to the USA since the Trump regime gained power. They are wrecking the USA as fast as they can and if this goes on, we will end up a Third World country going nowhere.)
See the Breaking Points discussion here :
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2025/12/30/infinite-thread-xxxviii/comment-page-6/#comment-2294601
of the “anti-woke military” criminal mentality esp from Shadow POTUS Miller & Kegsbreath including on the sinking of the Dena.
Specifically, it violates the conditions the UN Charter places on the resort to war, which it permits only with the approval of the UNSC…
…which is currently presided over by…
…Melania Trump.
Yes, that’s the timeline we’re in.
Raging Bee, the veto power can block a resolution from passing, but can not force one to pass.
Under Article 27, to authorize military action (under Chapter VII of the UN Charter), a resolution requires at least nine affirmative votes and zero vetoes from the five permanent members (P5: China, France, Russia, UK, and USA).
Your observation is therefore not relevant to the claim you quoted.
[oops — link: https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/chapter-5 ]
Not only are a lot of very expensive air defense missiles being used, with questions of how soon they can be replace, Iran has reportedly damaged several of the radars that allow them to operate. Equipment that is even more expensive than individual missiles to replace, and is vital for the effective operation of those missiles.
https://www.twz.com/news-features/iranian-attacks-on-critical-missile-defense-radars-are-a-wake-up-call
The US have no goals with this war except to sate TACO’s ego and to give chickenhawk Kegsbreath* jerk off material. Hence why TACO is already pivoting to his next war and pretending this one’s won.
Israel however has two 1) distract its people from the fact that the economy is falling apart and 2) distract the rest of the world from the holocaust it’s committing in Palestine.
*Despite his boasts, Kegsbreath is not a “warfighter”. As a morale officer he never lead troops in battle nor came within a country mile of an active combat. He’s a real life Walter Mitty (without Mitty’s good points)
I very much doubt the ship was unarmed.
(https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/indian-navy-milan-exercise-29-aircraft-42-warships-submarines-mega-exercise-in-bay-of-bengal-11138546)
OT but related.
Tonight WTI, West Texas Crude Oil, a benchmark for the world oil market is now $109/barrel in the futures market. Up $18.
This is bad. This is a disaster for the whole world.
I can’t quite figure out what this means for the price of gasoline at the pump.
We were at $5.00 in the Bay Area a few days ago.
I can say gas is going to be expensive next week, highest price per gallon in years.
And, a lot of people in the USA and the entire rest of the world are going to be angry.
@40 raven
Its great for the unaffected oil companies, and great for the world if it results in less total tonnage oil sales.
Not that there is much for that, people are actively stupid and short-sighted. Our only hope is that the current nativity trends accelerate and spread globally.
Even the somewhat reasonable news outlets seem to forget to mention that Iran is only as messed up as it has been because of the LAST attempt the US made at regime change there.
And Hegseth is just being a caricature of a Department of Defense official throughout. What kind of clueless imbecile do you have to be to effectively promise that you’re going to do war crimes? That doesn’t demoralize our foes. It tells OUR soldiers that their leadership doesn’t give a damn about their lives. Advertises it ahead of time in fact. All so that chickenshit little man child can pretend he’s a big important bully that everyone should pay attention to.
The Trump regime has only one purpose: to provide mental healthcare for a tiny group of grifters, chucklefucks, and imbeciles desperately trying to hide how terrified they are of their own shadows. And I bet you all thought the GOP didn’t believe in mental healthcare!
I don’t mean this to excuse the sinking, but I would point out: If the only US ship in the area was the attack sub that sank the ship, then the USN was in no position to do rescue operations. An attack submarine is possibly the worst possible oceangoing vessel to perform rescue operations with. They can barely operate on the surface. It was at night, and they hardly have any lights. Their only “deck” is curved and very low to the water. The only part meant to have people on it when surfaced is a little bit at the top of the sail. I am not even sure if they are equipped with a rope long enough to reach the water from up there. And even if they did mange to pull anyone out of the water the interior is so cramped there’s no place for more than a fraction of the crew of even such a small ship to go.