NEWS DESK (MNN); Sri Lanka on Thursday evacuated 208 crew members from an Iranian navy vessel after a United States submarine attack sank another Iranian frigate a day earlier, leaving dozens of sailors dead.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said the rescued personnel were taken off the Iranian naval vessel as a precaution amid concerns that it could also become a potential target.
The Sri Lankan Navy will now take control of the vessel, IRIS Bushehr, and move it to the northeastern port of Trincomalee for safekeeping. The ship had earlier reported a malfunction in one of its engines.
“We are not taking sides in this conflict, but while maintaining our neutrality we are taking action to save lives,” President Dissanayake said in a televised address.
He added that the Iranian crew and naval cadets aboard the ship would be moved ashore to ensure their safety while Sri Lankan naval personnel temporarily operate the vessel.
The development follows Wednesday’s attack in which the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena was struck and sunk by a US submarine in international waters.
According to Iran’s ambassador to India, Mohammad Fathali, the frigate had been unarmed as it was returning from a naval exercise held in the Indian port city of Visakhapatnam.
Iran strongly condemned the incident, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warning that Washington would “bitterly regret” the attack.
“The United States has committed an atrocity at sea, nearly 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores,” Araghchi said in a post on X, adding that the vessel had been carrying around 130 sailors and was attacked without warning.
