An Iranian ship has sought an “urgent port call” in Sri Lanka, just days after a US submarine sunk an Iranian frigate in international waters with a torpedo.
Sri Lankan MP Namal Rajapaksa on Thursday (March 5, 2026) said the urgent request from the Iranian naval vessel came just days after the frigate, Iris Dena, which was returning from Visakhapatnam in India after participating in the Milan exercise, was sunk by a US submarine.
“It has been brought to our notice that another Iranian vessel is in Sri Lanka’s Exclusive Economic Zone, just outside our territorial waters, and has sought the government’s permission to make an urgent port call. However, it is yet to await the government’s clearance,” the MP wrote on social media platform X.
The Sri Lankan MP’s statement came after his compatriot, and Media Minister, Nalinda Jayatissa, said a second Iranian warship was just outside Sri Lankan waters, but gave no further details.
The US submarine attack on IRIS Dena took place 2,000 nautical miles away from Iran, killing around 87 people on board.
As per the Sri Lankan government, 32 sailors were rescued during a search operation. But several Iranian sailors remained lost at sea and presumed dead.
The US Navy submarine used a heavyweight torpedo, not used in combat since World War II, to sink the Iranian frigate in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday (March 4).
The Mark-48 torpedo exploded beneath IRIS Dena’s stern, sending a towering column of water into the air, as the vessel’s hull began tearing apart above the waterline, footage released by the US War Department later showed.
The US targeted the ship in waters off the coast of Sri Lanka, but the Pentagon has not revealed the identity of the submarine involved in the attack.
At a Pentagon press briefing, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called it a “quiet death.”
The US Navy’s History and Heritage Command noted that a torpedo was last used in combat by the US during the Second World War.
On August 14, 1945, the submarine USS Torsk destroyed a Japanese patrol escort vessel near the port of Maizuru.
The 750-ton vessel, known as CD-13, detected the submarine using sonar, leading the Torsk to fire two torpedoes, one from 400 feet beneath the water. Both weapons struck the ship, killing 28 crew members.