GALLE, Sri Lanka (AFP) — A United States (US) submarine sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka on Wednesday, killing at least 87 sailors and leaving dozens missing, officials said.

The sinking came as the war sparked by a joint US-Israel attack on Iran continued to spread across the Middle East.

“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters in Washington.

He called the attack “quiet death” and the first US sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II.

“Like in that war,” Hegseth said, “We are fighting to win.”

The Sri Lankan navy recovered the bodies of 87 sailors from waters near the southern city of Galle, but 61 remained missing, police and defence officials said.

“A search is still on for the others,” a navy official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath said Sri Lankan forces had rescued 32 sailors, many wounded, from the stricken Iranian frigate IRIS Dena.

The rescued sailors are being treated in Galle, where an AFP photographer saw the first batch of over two dozen bodies being transported into a hospital on Wednesday evening.

The vessel issued a distress call at dawn but had completely sunk by the time a rescue ship reached the area within an hour, leaving only an oil patch on the surface, said Sri Lankan navy spokesman Buddhika Sampath.

The warship was travelling after reportedly attending a military exercise in India’s eastern port of Visakhapatnam.

The attack was just 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Galle, the local navy said.

Iran has not yet commented on the sinking. Tehran’s ambassador in Colombo, Alireza Delkhosh, was not immediately available for comment.

Sampath said Sri Lanka’s response to the distress call was in line with its maritime obligations.

“This is within our search and rescue area in the Indian Ocean,” Sampath told AFP.

Sri Lanka has remained neutral and has repeatedly urged dialogue to resolve the conflict in the Middle East.

Just over a million Sri Lankans are employed in the region, and they are a key source of foreign exchange for the country emerging from its worst-ever economic meltdown in 2022.

Both Sri Lanka’s navy and the air force said they were not releasing footage of the rescue because it involved the military of another state.

Police stepped up security outside the Galle hospital as the wounded Iranians were brought there.