A second Iranian ship has entered Sri Lankan territorial waters just a day after an American submarine torpedoed a vessel and killed more than 80 people, Sri Lankan officials have said.
Sri Lanka is not allowing the ship to dock but is providing some humanitarian assistance, cabinet spokesperson Nalinda Jayatissa said on Wednesday.
“We are doing our utmost to safeguard lives,” he said.
Mr Jayatissa did not confirm whether the vessel was a naval or commercial ship.
Two other Sri Lankan officials said the boat is around 20 miles south of the country’s capital of Colombo and had requested approval to dock on Wednesday, but permission was not granted.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said the military had struck an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka’s coast on Wednesday, killing more than 80 people and leaving dozens more injured.
“The Iranian navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf,” he said, as he showed footage of Tuesday night’s attack in the Indian Ocean on what he called the Islamic Republic’s “prize ship”.
Sri Lanka’s President Anura Kumara Dissanayake will meet with top officials on Thursday in order to discuss a response to the Iranian request to enter its waters for safety, sources told AFP.
More than 100 crew are reported to be on board and fear they will suffer a similar attack, AFP report.
Meanwhile, preparations are reportedly being made to hand over the remains of 87 Iranian soldiers killed in the submarine attack, while 32 others who were rescued are receiving medical treatment under elite security supervision.
Sri Lanka’s foreign minister Vijitha Herath told parliament that its navy received information that the Iranian frigate Iris Dena, with 180 people on board, was in distress and sinking. The island nation sent ships and air force planes on a rescue mission to the vessel.
By the time navy ships reached the location, there was no sign of the ship and “there were only some oil patches and life rafts. We found people floating on the water,” said Navy spokesman Commander Buddhika Sampath.
The unrest comes after the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday, killing its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and sparking a wave of Iranian retaliatory strikes across the Gulf.
The conflict has paralysed shipping routes, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claiming “complete control” of the international waterway.
Why does Iran have warships near Sri Lanka?
The Iris Dena had recently participated in exercises as part of the International Fleet Review 2026, a military exercise hosted by India, according to the BBC.
Indian media reported that the Iranian frigate had also been taking part in the 2026 MILAN multinational naval exercise alongside other countries.
It had been returning from these exercises and sailing through the Indian Ocean past the coast of Sri Lanka and transiting through a major shipping route when it was attacked.
The armed carrier was one of Iran’s most modern warships carrying heavy guns, missiles, torpedoes and a helicopter.
Sri Lanka has remained neutral in the ongoing conflict between the US, Israel and Iran.
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