An Iranian warship destroyed in a US torpedo strike on Wednesday was "defenceless" and participating in an international naval exercise as a guest of the Indian navy, according to reports.
Former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal said “the Iranian ship will not be where it was if we had not invited it to talk [sic] part in our Milan exercise”. Sibal added that because it was taking part in an exercise “it was defenceless”.
Indian politician Supriya Shrinate said on social media: "These Iranian navy men parading at an event in India, were our guests. Invited by us.
"US submarine targeted their ship and killed them while they were returning home." Shrinate also criticised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his failure to make a statement on the attack.
to attack a literally defenseless warship ... Could you not have, you know, boarded it instead? Forced it to surrender? Feels like at that point you can just threaten to do what you did and they would have to comply.
if you've seen the released periscope footage of the attack, and realize that that explosion was fully from the torpedo and not from an ammo store blowing, it makes it look that much more like an intentional massacre. Is there really no smaller munition on board that sub that can be used to disable a defenseless target?