A second Iranian ship was reported to be in waters near Sri Lanka and requesting emergency permission to dock, a day after a US submarine sank an Iranian frigate killing more than 80 people on board.
Sri Lankan Minister Nalinda Jayatissa told parliament that another Iranian ship was sailing near Sri Lanka’s territorial waters on Thursday morning. “We are making necessary interventions to resolve this issue, limit the threat to lives and ensure regional security,” Jayatissa said.
Sources told The Guardian that the ship was a pipe-laying logistics vessel, which is not classified as a warship. It may be as little as 10 nautical miles off the western coast of Sri Lanka, placing it within the country’s sovereign waters.
Sources said the ship, which reportedly has a crew of more than 100 on board, had submitted an urgent request to dock at Colombo port for engine repairs.
On Tuesday, a US torpedo destroyed the Iris Dena, an Iranian warship, as it returned home after participating in a military training exercise in India. The deadly submarine attack quickly sank the ship and killed at least 87 sailors.
According to Sri Lankan opposition MP Namal Rajapaksa, the ship has requested permission from the government to make an urgent port call, but has not yet received permission.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake met his cabinet and defense officials on Thursday to decide on a response.
The attack on the Iris Dena marked an escalation of the US-Israeli attack on Iran that began over the weekend and was the first incident of the conflict to spread beyond the Middle East.
In Iran’s first response to the attack, the country’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the United States would “bitterly regret” the attack. “The United States has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles off the coast of Iran,” he said, in a statement on X. “The frigate Dena, a guest of the Indian Navy carrying nearly 130 sailors, was attacked in international waters without warning.”
Sri Lanka’s navy and coast guard had responded to a distress call from the ship in the early hours of Wednesday morning, but when they arrived, the ship had sunk with only an oil slick remaining, and survivors clinging to life rafts.
The navy’s rescue operation for missing sailors aboard the Iris Dena continued on Thursday, with at least six more bodies recovered from the sea.
Officials at Galle’s main hospital, where the survivors were taken, said 32 rescued Iranians were still being treated under tight security provided by police and military personnel.
Authorities were also making preparations to hand over to Iranian diplomatic officials the remains of 87 Iranian sailors killed by the American torpedo attack.
The Sri Lankan government confirmed that Iran had requested help to repatriate the bodies of the sailors recovered from the Iris Dena.
