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.
I mean, there’s literally no way the US didn’t know it was on the way back from an ammo-less exercise. The Indian naval exercises were very public, with 74 countries participating.
Profound incompetence seems like a possibility tbh. They absolutely should have known about it but it sure seems like they’re basically just fucking around, not taking things seriously. So I’d definitely believe that they saw an Iranian warship pull up and were like “WTF is that doing there? Kill it!”.
I don’t think that should excuse their actions, but it does seem like a believable chain of events.
Like a bunch of drunk rednecks driving around in their truck shooting at road signs.
Whos to say they didn’t pack some munitions with them anyway? Without another nation checking the ship you just have to take their word for it.
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I mean fair point, I can’t find any info on whether or not anyone verifies that the ships are unloaded or if it’s self reported. And it does seem unlikely that a nation would let another country inspect it’s warship.
More unlikey than letting dozens of armed warships into your seas, without any controls?