NEW DELHI: A day after an Iranian warship with 130 people on board was sunk by a US submarine in international waters off the Sri Lankan coast, killing 87 sailors, Iran’s foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Thursday warned that the US will “regret” its torpedo attack on frigate IRIS Dena, which, he said, came to India as a “guest of the Indian Navy” to participate in an exercise last month. Amid his threat, another Iranian warship has moved towards Sri Lankan waters to seek refuge.On X, Aragchi said, “US has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores. Frigate Dena, a guest of India’s Navy carrying almost 130 sailors, was struck in international waters without warning. Mark my words: The US will come to bitterly regret the precedent it has set.”The Indian Navy on Thursday said it joined the search and rescue operation after learning about a distress call from Iranian warship IRIS Dena. In a statement, the Navy said it promptly launched its search and rescue (SAR) efforts with a long-range maritime patrol aircraft at 10 am on Wednesday to augment the rescue operations led by Sri Lanka. “Another aircraft with air droppable life rafts was also kept standby for immediate deployment. INS Tarangini which was operating in the vicinity was deployed for aiding the rescue efforts and arrived in the search area by 4 pm,” it said. “By this time search and rescue had been undertaken by Sri Lankan Navy and other agencies,”Sources in the govt, however, emphasised that the Iranian frigate was targeted in international waters, and that it happened after the conclusion of the International Fleet Review and subsequent MILAN exercise on Feb 25.IRIS Dena was around the international shipping lane when it was attacked by the US submarine. The Sri Lankan navy recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people after receiving a distress signal from the Iranian warship, 40 nautical miles from the island nation.A day after the US attack on IRIS Dena, the second Iranian warship was seeking to escape the US nuclear submarine lurking in Indian Ocean. It had sought permission to enter Sri Lanka’s waters, according to its media minister Nalinda Jayatissa. Media reports quoting official sources said the vessel was carrying more than 100 crew and feared they too could be targeted the same way its sister warship was sunk by the US submarine. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was meeting top officials Thursday to discuss a response to an Iranian request to allow entry to the warship into the safety of the island’s waters.Meanwhile, govt officials rubbished a former US army officer’s statement that the US is using Indian ports to attack Iran. “On a US-based channel, One America News Network, former US Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor made a statement suggesting that the US is using Indian naval bases to attack Iran, amidst the ongoing Iran-US conflict. This claim is FAKE,” a PIB fact-check said.Aragchi’s comment follows the confirmation on Wednesday by US secretary of war Pete Hegseth that the US had sunk IRIS Dena. “In the Indian Ocean, an American submarine sank an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a (US) torpedo since World War II. Like in that war, back when we were still the War Department, we are fighting to win,” Hegseth said. Gen Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US submarine that sank Iris Dena launched a Mark-48 heavyweight torpedo.Earlier, Sri Lanka’s foreign minister Vijitha Herath told Parliament that its navy had received information that IRIS Dena was sinking. The island nation sent ships and air force planes on a rescue mission, he said. Navy spokesman Commander Buddhika Sampath told the media that by the time their ships reached the location of distress signals, there was no sign of the Iranian ship and “were only some oil patches and life rafts. We found people floating on the water”. He said 32 people rescued were admitted to a hospital in the seaside town of Galle on the southern coast. The bodies recovered were being brought to land, he said. “This is a serious concern for Sri Lanka and also the Indian Ocean, and I’m sure for India as well,” Sri Lankan MP Namal Rajapaksa, the son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, told an Indian media.
