32 critically wounded crew members rescued

Iranian warship sinks after apparent submarine attack near Sri Lanka; 101 said missing

Unclear who attacked frigate, which was armed with missiles and torpedoes and could carry a helicopter, but US military has said it aims to sink Iran’s ‘entire navy’

An apparent submarine attack on an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka has left at least 101 people missing, one dead and 78 injured, sources in Sri Lanka’s navy and defense ministry told Reuters on Wednesday.

The IRIS Dena frigate was armed with heavy guns, surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles and torpedoes and could carry a helicopter.

The 180-crew frigate had issued a distress call at dawn.

It was unclear who attacked the ship, which the sources said had sunk.

The US military said earlier Wednesday it had destroyed 17 Iranian vessels and that its goal was sinking “the entire navy,” while the Israel Defense Forces said the American military had taken full responsibility for targeting Iran’s maritime activities.

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath confirmed that the nation had rescued 32 “critically wounded” sailors aboard the IRIS Dena, which sank just outside the island nation’s territorial waters.

Herath said two Sri Lankan navy vessels and an aircraft were deployed for the rescue operation, but did not say what caused the Iranian warship to sink.

Sri Lanka’s defense ministry said it was searching for over 100 other members of the crew of the IRIS Dena, which went down about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the island.

“We are keeping up a search, but we don’t know yet what happened to the rest of the crew,” an official told AFP, dimming prospects for finding any more survivors.

However, a Sri Lankan navy spokesman told Reuters that the report of 101 people being missing was not true, and that 32 people injured in the incident had been rescued by the Sri Lankan navy.

Navy spokesman Buddhika Sampath said their operation was in line with Sri Lanka’s maritime obligations and that 32 Iranian sailors were sent to the main hospital in Galle, 115 kilometers (70 miles) south of the capital Colombo.

Police stepped up security outside the Galle hospital as the wounded Iranians were brought there by the local navy.

“We responded to the distress call under our international obligations, as this is within our search and rescue area in the Indian Ocean,” Sampath told AFP.

An opposition legislator asked in parliament whether the vessel had been bombed as part of the ongoing US-Israeli attacks against Iran, but there was no immediate response from the Sri Lankan government.

Both Sri Lanka’s navy and the air force said they were not releasing footage of the rescue because it involved the military of another state.