In the early hours of March 4, 2026, in international waters off the coast of Galle, Sri Lanka, the USS Charlotte, a Los Angeles–class nuclear-powered attack submarine, closed in on the IRIS Dena, a new Iranian Moudge-class frigate.
Submerged, the Charlotte fired a heavyweight, acoustic-homing torpedo at the hull of the Dena. It missed. It fired another. It connected. The periscope footage of the attack was released by the United States Department of War. It shows the shockwave of the torpedo fracturing the Dena’s hull and sending its helicopter flight deck metres into the air.
Within seconds, what was left of the Dena was plummeting to the depths of the Indian Ocean, carrying at least sixty of its crew of 180 to their deaths.
Some moments later, an email was sent from US Indo-Pacific Command to Sri Lanka’s maritime rescue agency. Twenty miles from Galle’s coast, a ship is in distress. Sri Lanka immediately engaged a search and rescue effort that included its air force and navy. The surface of the sea contained clues that a vessel had been attacked and had likely been sunk. But it was not clear whether the attack had come from above or below. They were able to rescue thirty-two sailors, and recover the bodies of eighty-seven others, many of whom had mysteriously broken legs.
The Charlotte had long vanished like an apparition beneath the waves.
This was on the fifth day of the US–Israeli war on Iran, 2,000 nautical miles from the immediate conflict zone.
Nothing about broken legs I can find.
My question was specifically about the broken legs.
If a ship is in distress you don’t normally get broken legs, it’s the implication that there was a very violent event that either caused people who were just standing around to get broken legs, or they panicked and jumped in to the water from height, having no time to reach lifeboats.
Also it’s showing the grim reality of war. The news usually like to say something was bombed and people killed, rather than something was bombed, a couple people vaporised, body parts founds in all directions and people amputated/mutilated, blinded. Or in this case drowned in agony with broken legs
I understand that.
But wouldn’t you have broken arms, shoulders, backs, etc etc.
Why call out legs specifically? Why is it a mystery?
It was a mystery from the perspective of the Sri Lankan rescuers, who didn’t realise at the time the exact nature of the Iranian ship’s fate. They knew it had been sunk, but not how. Later, the periscope footage would be released, illuminating the exact cause of the harm suffered by the Iranian sailors.
Did you watch the video?
Here’s another link just in case … https://news.usni.org/2026/03/04/video-u-s-attack-boat-torpedoes-iranian-frigate-off-sri-lanka