Iran vows US will ‘bitterly regret’ sinking of its frigate in Indian Ocean

Dubai, Mar 5: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, on Thursday, said that the United States “will come to bitterly regret the precedent it has set” after a US submarine allegedly sank an Iranian frigate off the coast of Sri Lanka.

The remark marked the first acknowledgement by the Iranian government of the sinking of the IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean.

Araghchi made the comment on social media, writing that “the US has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores.”

“Frigate Dena, a guest of India’s Navy carrying almost 130 sailors, was struck in international waters without warning. Mark my words: the US will come to bitterly regret the precedent it has set,” he wrote.

Iran launched a new wave of attacks on Thursday morning targeting Israeli and American bases, following earlier threats to destroy military and economic infrastructure across the region.

Iran fired missiles toward Bahrain, Kuwait and Israel as the conflict escalated. Turkiye said NATO defences intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Iran before it entered Turkish airspace.

Israel reported multiple incoming missile attacks, with air-raid sirens sounding in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Iranian state television said additional strikes had also targeted US bases.

The Israeli military said it launched targeted strikes in Lebanon against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The pace of American and Israeli strikes on Iran was so intense on Wednesday that state television announced the mourning ceremony for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the start of the conflict, would be postponed.

Millions had attended the funeral of his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in 1989.

US President Donald Trump praised the American military for “doing very well on the war front, to put it mildly.” Fellow Republicans in the US Senate backed Trump on Iran, voting down a resolution seeking to halt the war.

During a Pentagon briefing, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth did not provide a definitive timeline for US operations, which Trump has said could last for a month or longer.

“You can say four weeks, but it could be six. It could be eight. It could be three,” Hegseth said, adding, “Ultimately, we set the pace and the tempo. The enemy is off balance, and we’re going to keep them off balance.”

The war has killed more than 1,000 people in Iran, more than 70 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries.

The conflict has disrupted global oil and gas supplies, snarled international shipping and stranded hundreds of thousands of travellers across the Middle East.

PTI