Sri Lanka’s Deputy Minister of Defence Major General (Retd) Aruna Jayasekara has officially confirmed that the Iranian naval vessel IRIS Dena was sunk by a United States submarine in waters off Sri Lanka — the first government confirmation of the incident that had been the subject of unverified reports since early April.
Jayasekara announced on Tuesday that all 240 Iranian military personnel who had been detained on the island have now departed aboard a special Turkish Airlines charter flight bound for Iran.
Two crews, two detention centres
The 240 sailors comprised two distinct groups: 32 crew members rescued from the sunken IRIS Dena, who were held at the Koggala Detention Centre in southern Sri Lanka, and 208 crew from the IRIS Bushehr, a separate Iranian warship that was interned at the Trincomalee naval base in March after sustaining damage during the US-Iran conflict.
Diplomatic implications
The sinking of the IRIS Dena by a US submarine in waters adjacent to Sri Lanka — a country that has positioned itself as part of a Global South peace coalition — raises questions about the neutrality of Sri Lankan territorial waters in the ongoing conflict.
The departure of all Iranian personnel removes one sensitive diplomatic issue, but the confirmation that a US military strike occurred near Sri Lankan waters adds a new dimension to the island’s balancing act between Washington and Tehran, which recently offered Sri Lanka oil supplies amid the ongoing fuel crisis.
Iran’s formal demand for war reparations and the continued US naval blockade of Iranian ports mean the broader conflict remains far from resolution.
