By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. military carried out a strike that sank an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka's coast and triggered a rescue for dozens of Iranian sailors by Sri Lanka's navy, three U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
One of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the strike was carried out by a U.S. military submarine.
The U.S. strike triggered a distress call and the Sri Lankan armed forces launched a search and rescue operation. Sri Lankan authorities said they had rescued 32 people so far and recovered several bodies from the sea.
Sources in Sri Lanka's navy and defence ministry said the vessel had been attacked by a submarine and at least 101 people were missing in the incident that took place off Sri Lanka's Indian Ocean coast.
The defence sources said it was unclear who attacked the ship.
A Sri Lankan navy spokesman said the report of 101 people being missing was not true and rejected any reports on the cause of the ship sinking.
U.S. strikes on Iran's Navy is a central part of the war against Iran, launch by the United States on Saturday.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military's Central Command said it had already sunk 17 Iranian warships and was on track to destroy Iran's entire navy.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
