Sri Lanka tries to “safeguard lives” on second Iranian ship after US attack | Conflict news

The second warship is heading to the same area where a US submarine destroyed an Iranian frigate, killing dozens of sailors in international waters.

Sri Lanka is “trying to “safeguard lives” on another Iranian ship off its coast,” its cabinet spokesman says, after a US attack on an Iranian frigate killed more than 80 people and left dozens missing.

“We are doing everything we can to safeguard lives,” Nalinda Jayatissa said on Thursday, adding that the second ship was in the economic zone “beyond” Sri Lanka’s territorial waters.

On Wednesday, a US submarine sank an Iranian warship with a torpedo in international waters off Sri Lanka. The attack was carried out as the US-Israel war against Iran rages across the Middle East and beyond.

Jayatissa said the second warship is reported to be carrying more than 100 crew members and is heading to the same area where the US submarine destroyed the Iranian frigate. It is feared that the second ship could be attacked in the same way.

“The second Iranian warship to pass near Sri Lanka’s territorial waters since yesterday is believed to be part of a group of three Iranian navy vessels returning from an international maritime event in India,” said Al Jazeera’s Minelle Fernandez, reporting from Colombo, Sri Lanka.

“The second ship contacted local authorities in Sri Lanka, stating that it was having engine problems and asking to make a port call. That is not happening, but there is some communication, from what we have heard.”

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government “has to tread carefully,” Fernández said.

“Although it has not taken any side in the ongoing war and is far from the center of operations, the country has almost been dragged into this conflict.”

US ‘will bitterly regret precedent it has set’: Iran

Meanwhile, authorities in the southern port city of Galle were making preparations Thursday to hand over the remains of the 87 Iranian sailors killed in the torpedo attack claimed by the U.S. military.

Officials at Galle’s main hospital said 32 rescued Iranians were being treated under tight security provided by police and elite commandos.

The Emergency Treatment Unit was off-limits to visitors and other patients while medical authorities set up a separate ward for Iranians.

“Most have minor injuries, but there were some with fractures and burns,” a nurse at the hospital told the AFP news agency without giving her name.

Navy spokesperson Buddhika Sampath told AFP that Sri Lankan navy ships are continuing the search for missing Iranian sailors.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday that the United States “will come to bitterly regret (the) precedent it has set.” It was the first time the Iranian government acknowledged the sinking of the IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean.

Araghchi made the comment about X, saying: “The United States has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) off the coast of Iran.”

“Indian Navy guest frigate Dena carrying nearly 130 sailors was struck in international waters without warning,” he wrote. “Mark my words: America will come to bitterly regret the precedent it has set.”

Gen. Kioumars Heydari, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), told state television on Thursday that the IRGC has “decided to fight the Americans wherever they are,” adding that Iran does not care how long the war lasts.

Later on Thursday, the IRGC said it had hit a US oil tanker in the northern part of the Gulf and that the ship was on fire. The IRGC said in a statement carried by state media that in times of war, passage through the Strait of Hormuz would be under the control of Iran.

The United States has not responded to that claim.