Sri Lanka takes control of Iranian vessel off its coast fearing US sub attack

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka has taken control of an Iranian naval vessel off its coast, a day after a deadly US submarine attack on another ship that killed at least 87 people.President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said in a televised address that his country’s navy had offloaded 208 sailors from the IRIS Bushehr, which had requested port entry due to engine trouble.The Bushehr, like the IRIS Dena, the ship torpedoed off Sri Lanka’s southern coast on Wednesday, had recently participated in a naval exercise in eastern India, Dissanayake said.Sri Lanka allowed it to dock at a north-eastern port after hours of discussion, with Dissanayake saying they would “never hesitate to protect humanity”The South Asian country has stressed its neutrality, saying it would take no sides as it finds itself caught in the middle of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran.”Our position has been to safeguard our neutrality while demonstrating our humanitarian values,” Dissanayake said in a statement.”[Sri Lanka] intervened in a way that demonstrated our commitment to international conventions, protecting the reputation and dignity of our country, and protecting human lives,” he said on Thursday.His statements come after an American submarine on Wednesday torpedoed the Iris Dena — which was struck about 44 nautical miles (81km) off Sri Lanka’s southern coast.The frigate, which was carrying about 180 crew, was part of a multinational naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal. Sri Lanka lies in the Indian Ocean, southeast of India and southwest of the Bay of Bengal.The sinking of the Iris Dena marked an escalation in the widening Middle East conflict.Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi called it an “atrocity at sea” and said the US would “bitterly regret” the attack.US defence secretary Pete Hegseth touted it as an example of America’s military prowess, claiming it was “the first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War Two”.While it is the first time since 1945 that an American submarine has sunk an enemy ship this way, the UK and Pakistan have both sunk vessels using torpedoes since then.The Iris Dena was one of about 20 Iranian navy vessels destroyed since Israel and the US launched coordinated strikes on Iran over the weekend.