US says 20+ Iranian vessels sunk, releases images of corvette strike

March 5, 2026, by Fatima Bahtić

The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) has released still images it said show the targeting of the IRIS Shahid Sayyad Shirazi, a Soleimani-class corvette operated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In a statement accompanying the images, CENTCOM said that more than 20 vessels affiliated with the IRGC and the Iranian Navy have been targeted and sunk since the launch of Operation Epic Fury, an ongoing US military campaign against Iranian maritime assets.

Operation Epic Fury: US details first 48 hours of military action against Iranian targets

Operations

US officials have framed the operation as a response to escalating threats in regional waterways, though further operational details were not immediately disclosed.

The reported strike near Bandar Abbas marks the latest development in a widening maritime confrontation in the Gulf region, where commercial shipping lanes and naval patrol routes intersect in one of the world’s most sensitive energy corridors.

View on Twitter.

Furthermore, the US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth revealed in a social media post that a US submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean. He noted that this was the first sinking of a ship by a torpedo since World War II.

View on Twitter.

Iran condemned the actions. Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi accused Washington of committing “an atrocity at sea.”

“The U.S. has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores,” Araghchi wrote on social media.

He stated that the frigate, described as a guest of the Indian Navy and carrying nearly 130 sailors, had been operating in international waters at the time of the alleged strike.

The escalating rhetoric and expanding scope of reported naval engagements raise concerns over further destabilization in and around the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which a significant portion of the world’s seaborne oil supplies transit.