“India’s Backyard, Not India’s War: The Hard Truth About The Indian Ocean”, Swarajya, March 11, 2026

“On the morning of 4 March 2026, the Sri Lankan Navy received a distress call from a vessel approximately 40 nautical miles south of Galle. By the time rescue boats arrived, the ship was gone. Sri Lankan sailors pulled 87 bodies from the water and rescued 32 survivors, some critically wounded.

The ship was the IRIS Dena, one of Iran’s newest warships. The submarine that killed it was the USS Charlotte. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth later declared, “An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Quiet death.”

The IRIS Dena had docked at Visakhapatnam in February as a participant in the Indian Navy’s International Fleet Review 2026 and Exercise MILAN, an event India’s Defence Minister described as proof of the confidence the global maritime community places in India as a maritime partner. The Dena left Indian waters on 25 February. A few days later, it was at the bottom of the ocean……”

Read full article at swarajyamag.com