Sri Lanka says it is trying to safeguard lives on second Iranian ship after US sinks frigate
By Uditha Jayasinghe
GALLE, Sri Lanka, March 5 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka said it was trying to “protect lives” with a second Iranian ship off its coast on Thursday, a day after a U.S. submarine attack on an Iranian warship in the same area killed 87 people.
The island’s security council, which includes senior military officials, is meeting to discuss what steps to take, two government sources told Reuters, without saying whether it was another military ship.
“The President, defense officials and other relevant officials are aware of the situation and we are addressing it,” Cabinet spokeswoman Nalinda Jayatissa said in response to questions from an opposition leader.
“We are doing everything we can to protect lives,” he said, without saying how.
RESCUERS CONTINUE TO SEARCH FOR 10 MISSING PEOPLE
Jayatissa said the ship was near the port of Colombo, which is in the country’s exclusive economic zone but outside its maritime borders.
He added that the first ship, IRIS Dena, was sunk on Wednesday 19 nautical miles off Sri Lanka’s southern port city of Galle, and two freezers were sent to store 87 bodies recovered from the sea.
Sri Lanka’s deputy minister for health and mass communications, Hansaka Wijemuni, told Reuters that Tehran had asked Colombo to help repatriate the bodies, adding that a timeframe had not yet been determined.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the warship was hit without warning in international waters thousands of kilometers away from the Gulf, where US and Israeli forces have struck Iran and Tehran has retaliated with missile and drone strikes.
“The USA will bitterly regret the precedent it has set,” Araqchi said in a post on channel X, adding that the warship was a guest of the Indian navy and was carrying approximately 130 sailors.
According to the exercise’s website and Sri Lankan officials, IRIS Dena had participated in a naval exercise organized by India in the Bay of Bengal from 18 to 25 February and was on its way back.
Sri Lankan military rescue teams responded to an early morning distress call from the frigate on Wednesday and found 32 survivors.
It was stated that search and rescue efforts will continue for approximately 10 people whose names were not disclosed.
The Indian Navy also said it had launched a search and rescue operation to “boost” Sri Lanka’s efforts.
The attack significantly expanded the scope of the war.
“An American submarine sank an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement at the Pentagon. “A torpedo was sunk instead. Silent death.”
A Pentagon video purported to capture the attack showed a massive explosion that shattered the ship’s stern, lifting it out of the water and causing it to begin sinking at the stern.
(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe in Galle and Jana Choukeir and Elwely Elwelly in Dubai; Additional reporting by Saurabh Sharma in New Delhi; Writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and YP Rajesh; Editing by Saad Sayeed, Philippa Fletcher and Andrew Heavens)
