Iran called for President Trump’s blood as it warned Thursday the US will “bitterly regret” torpedoing an Iranian warship that left more than 80 sailors dead.
“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,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi wrote on X on Thursday.
“Mark my words: The US will come to bitterly regret (the) precedent it has set.”
The tough talk comes a day after an American submarine targeted the Iranian vessel – the first time a US Navy submarine blew an enemy ship out of water since World War II.
Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli then took aim directly at Trump, calling for the “shedding of Zionist blood, the shedding of Trump’s blood” on state television.
“We are now on the verge of a great test, and we must be careful to fully preserve this unity, to fully preserve this alliance,” Amoli said in a message aired on Iranian state television on Thursday.
A US Navy submarine fired on and sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean. US Department of Defense/AFP via Getty Images
The vessel was seen going beneath the water. Department of Defense/UPI/Shutterstock
“The Imam of the time says, ‘Fight the oppressive America, his blood is on my shoulders.’”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the ship “thought it was safe in international waters” before it was struck by a Mark 48 torpedo, which costs an estimated $4.2 million.
“Mark my words: The US will come to bitterly regret (the) precedent it has set,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. AFP via Getty Images
Healthcare workers carry the bodies of Iranian sailors who died in a US torpedo attack at the mortuary of the Karapitiya hospital in Galle on March 4, 2026. AFP via Getty Images“Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo — Quiet Death,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth said the strike was the first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II, when the USS Torsk sank a Japanese enemy vessel just one day before Japan’s surrender in August 1945.
“Like in that war, back when we were still the War Department, we are fighting to win.”
Video released by the Pentagon appeared to show the vessel being hit by a huge explosion, which ripped apart its rear. The impact of the blast caused the ship to lift and begin sinking from the stern.
Thomas Shugart, of the Center for a New American Security, explained that the torpedo — which he described as one of the most lethal anti-ship weapons in the US’ inventory — would create a “vapor bubble” under the vessel, causing it to split in half.
“This torpedo detonated underneath the stern of the Iranian ship and lifted it up out of the water, and so it sank in a matter of minutes,” he told Fox News Digital.
Sri Lanka’s navy recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people on Wednesday.
Buddhika Sampath, a Sri Lankan navy spokesperson, said there were no signs of the vessel when rescue crews arrived, “only some oil patches and life rafts.”
Health care workers unload the bodies of Iranian sailors who died when their IRIS Dena warship sank outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters, in Galle, Sri Lanka, on March 4, 2026. AP“We found people floating on the water,” he said.
The ship’s commander and some top brass were among the survivors.
The IRIS Dena was heading back to Iran from an eastern Indian port when it was hit, according to the Sri Lankan deputy foreign minister.
It had taken part in a naval drill organized by India between Feb. 18 and 25.
US Central Command officials have confirmed the US has struck or sunk more than 20 Iranian ships.
With Post wires
