Sri Lanka evacuated more than 200 crew members from a second Iranian naval ship off its coast, a day after a US submarine sank an Iranian frigate in the same waters, leaving 87 sailors dead.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake announced on Thursday that his navy would take custody of the second ship and move it to the northeastern port of Trincomalee for safekeeping, amid fears it could be targeted. He said his government held talks with Iranian officials and the ship’s captain.
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Sri Lankan authorities say 87 bodies have been recovered and 32 people have been rescued from the approximately 180 people believed to have been aboard the sunken IRIS Dena on Wednesday.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed on Wednesday that a US submarine sank the ship amid US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
Cabinet spokesperson Nalinda Jayatissa told parliament the ship was parked near Colombo, within Sri Lanka’s exclusive economic zone but beyond its territorial waters, adding that authorities were doing “everything possible to safeguard lives”.
The developments came as Washington confirmed it had torpedoed the IRIS Dena, an Iranian frigate returning from a peacetime naval exercise hosted by India, marking the first time a US submarine has sunk an enemy warship with a torpedo since World War II.
Sri Lanka’s coast guard received a distress call from the IRIS Dena at 5:08 a.m. on Wednesday (23:28 GMT Tuesday), and the surviving crew described an explosion. Rescue ships arrived to find the frigate already gone, navy spokesman Buddhika Sampath said, with only an oil slick and floating life rafts remaining at the site.
Thirty-two survivors, all seriously injured, were taken to Galle National Hospital. Eighty-seven bodies were recovered from the sea, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath said. More than 10 sailors are still missing.
The frigate, carrying around 180 crew members, was sailing home after participating in a major multinational naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal involving ships from 74 countries when it was hit approximately 44 nautical miles (81 kilometers) off the southern coast of Sri Lanka.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the attack at a Pentagon briefing and released black-and-white images of a Mark 48 torpedo hitting the stern of the frigate. “A US submarine sank an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” he said. “Quiet death.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called it “an atrocity at sea, 3,219 kilometers (2,000 miles) off the coast of Iran,” noting that the ship had been a guest of the Indian navy when it was attacked without warning.
“The United States will bitterly regret the precedent it has set,” he wrote on social media. He later responded to Trump’s claim that the operation was running ahead of schedule: “Plan A for a clean and quick military victory failed, Mr. President.”
The IRIS Dena was one of more than 20 Iranian navy ships destroyed since the United States and Israel launched coordinated attacks on Iran on February 28, targeting the country’s leaders, missile arsenals and nuclear infrastructure in an operation aimed at overthrowing the current government.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on the second day of the attacks, sparking protests in the country and beyond.
As of Tuesday, not a single Iranian warship was still sailing in the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz or the Gulf of Oman, said the head of US Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper.
Questions have also been raised about the legality of the attack in international waters.
Israeli-American attacks have killed more than 1,000 people in Iran and displaced more than 100,000 from Tehran, according to the UN.
In a striking example of how far Washington’s war goals have gone, Trump told Reuters on Thursday that the United States intended to play a role in electing Iran’s next supreme leader.
“We want to participate in the process of choosing the person who will lead Iran into the future,” he said.
Sri Lanka, which has declared neutrality and called for “moderation and immediate reduction of tensions,” now finds itself harboring the human remains of a war raging on its doorstep.
“Neutrality and humanity are the priority. We have responsibilities as a neutral country. All parties must commit to peace,” Sri Lanka’s president said on Thursday.
