IRAN and the United States have offered sharply different accounts of the sinking of an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean last week.

Iranian officials insist that the vessel was operating in a non-combat role.

On Sunday, the US Indo-Pacific Command (Indopacom) rejected Iran’s insistence that the warship was unarmed when it was sunk by a submarine in international waters off Sri Lanka on March 4. In a social media statement, Indopacom dismissed Iran’s version of events as “false.”

The response followed strong objections from Tehran, which has repeatedly characterised the warship as defenceless, saying it was returning home after taking part in a naval exercise.

An Indian navy source said the Iranian vessel was not “entirely unarmed” and had taken part in drills alongside other countries’ warships.

Rahul Bedi, an independent defence analyst based in India, said the vessel may have used some limited non-offensive ammunition during the naval exercises, but protocol requires “the participating platforms to be unarmed.

He explained: “The precondition of participating in such a parade, or such a ceremony, is that it [the vessel] comes unarmed. That is the precondition of the Indian navy and it’s a precondition of most navies when they hold such similar sort of fleet reviews.”

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said last Friday that the warship had not been carrying weapons when it was sunk by a US torpedo and was in the area “by invitation of our Indian friends, attending an international exercise.

“It was ceremonial. It was unloaded. It was unarmed,” he told reporters in New Delhi.

After the sinking, the Sri Lankan navy rescued 32 sailors and recovered 87 bodies.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the IRIS Dena was “a prize” and had “died a quiet death.”