The Tragedy of the “Peace Exercise”

On March 4, thousands of miles away from the battlefield between Iran and the United States, a distress signal was transmitted from a point 19 miles off the coast of Sri Lanka.

The Iranian warship Dena was struck by two torpedoes launched by the American submarine USS Charlotte without prior warning.

This occurred despite the fact that, one week earlier, from February 5 to 25, the international MILAN naval exercise and maritime gathering had been held with the participation of nearly 70 countries, including the United States and Iran, with the warship Dena attending as Iran’s representative.

Given the diplomatic and training nature of this event, participating vessels were not permitted to carry heavy non-training munitions, including torpedoes and missiles. As a result, the Dena lacked the capability to engage with the official navy of another country and was therefore defenseless against such an attack.

Due to the nature of the event, many of the sailors aboard the Dena were elite naval cadets and instructors of the Iranian Navy, a fact that further deepens the sorrow caused by this massacre.

On March 4, while the Dena was waiting for authorization from Sri Lankan authorities to dock at port in order to avoid the dangers of war, it was struck by the first torpedo at 05:08, and approximately five minutes later the second torpedo also struck the vessel.

The launch and impact of the second torpedo on the stern section of the vessel — which, according to common emergency procedures and naval practice, serves as the gathering point for sailors during evacuation — indicates that the second strike was intended to kill and eliminate any survivors.

Under Article 41 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions (1977), attacks against persons who are hors de combat, including individuals who are unable to continue fighting due to injury, shipwreck, or physical incapacity, are prohibited, and such persons must be protected and must not be made the object of attack.

At the same time, under international rules, American forces were required to take immediate measures to save the lives of the survivors.

According to the Second Geneva Convention of 1949 for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea, parties to a conflict are obligated, without delay after each naval engagement, to take all possible measures to search for, collect, rescue, and protect the wounded, sick, and shipwrecked.

Nevertheless, they continued their attack by eliminating sailors who had survived the first strike.

Nevertheless, American forces not only failed to take any action to rescue the survivors, but also refrained from sending emergency distress signals and the survivors’ location to nearby coastal states.

In this incident, 104 out of the vessel’s 136 crew members were killed, and the bodies of 20 of them were never recovered.

Statements by U.S. Secretary of Defense Peter Ryan Hegseth rejecting limitations on the American military during war and describing the rules of war as foolish, as well as remarks by the President of the United States describing the attack and the killing of Iranian sailors as a form of amusement,

all demonstrate disregard by American forces for principles, morality, and the value of international rules, the consequences of which have resulted in war crimes and multiple violations of international humanitarian law, including the tragedies of Minab School, Towfiq Darou, and the Dena warship.