By Uditha Jayasinghe
GALLE, Sri Lanka, March 5 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka said it was trying to "safeguard lives" on a second Iranian ship off its coast on Thursday, a day after 87 people were killed in a U.S. submarine strike on an Iranian warship in the same region.
Sri Lanka's cabinet spokesman told parliament that various authorities were responding to the presence of an Iranian ship in Sri Lanka's exclusive economic zone outside its maritime boundary near the port of Colombo.
"The President, defence officials, and all other relevant officials are aware and we are addressing the situation," spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa said in response to questions from an opposition leader.
"We are doing our utmost to safeguard lives," he said, without saying how, or whether the ship was a military vessel.
Jayatissa said the IRIS Dena was sunk on Wednesday 19 nautical miles off Sri Lanka's southern port city of Galle and that two freezers had been dispatched from Colombo to store the 87 bodies recovered from the sea.
IRAN HINTS AT FUTURE RETALIATION FOR ATTACK
Tehran has asked Colombo to help repatriate the bodies, Sri Lanka's deputy minister for health and mass media, Hansaka Wijemuni, told Reuters, adding that a timeframe had not yet been determined.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the warship was struck in international waters without warning thousands of miles from the Gulf, where U.S. and Israeli forces are striking Iran and Tehran is retaliating with missile and drone attacks.
"The U.S. will bitterly regret the precedent it has set," Araqchi said in a post on X, adding that the warship was a guest of India's navy and was carrying almost 130 sailors.
Sri Lankan military rescuers responded to an early-morning distress call from the IRIS Dena on Wednesday and found 32 survivors. Authorities said they would be released from hospital on Thursday after being treated for minor injuries.
Search and rescue operations for an estimated 10 people who remain unaccounted for would continue, they said.
Two policemen guarded the entrance to ward No. 58 of the hospital as nurses milled about and doctors conducted morning rounds.
The attack dramatically widens the scope of the war.
"An American submarine sank an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters," U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at the Pentagon. "Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death."
A Pentagon video purporting to have captured the attack showed a huge explosion blowing apart the rear of the vessel, lifting it from the water, and causing it to begin sinking from the stern.
IRIS Dena had taken part in a naval exercise organised by India in the Bay of Bengal from February 18 to 25 and was on its way back, according to the drill's website and Sri Lankan officials.
An Indian Navy spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment after the Dena was sunk.
(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe in Galle and Jana Choukeir and Elwely Elwelly in Dubai; Writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and YP Rajesh; Editing by Saad Sayeed and Philippa Fletcher)
