The incident comes amid the escalating US-Israel-Iran conflict, now in its fifth day, following strikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and other top officials.
Colombo: The Iranian frigate Iris Dena is sinking just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters amid the ongoing US-led strikes in the region, the Sri Lankan government confirmed on Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told parliament that 30 injured sailors aboard the 180-crew vessel were being rescued and brought to a hospital in the southern part of the island.
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“Sri Lanka has deployed ships and aircraft to rescue sailors from the sinking frigate,” he said.
An opposition legislator asked Sri Lanka 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 government.
The incident comes amid the escalating US-Israel-Iran conflict, now in its fifth day, following strikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and other top officials.
The US Central Command, led by Admiral Brad Cooper, has reported that nearly 2,000 Iranian targets have been struck and 17 Iranian naval vessels, including the most operational submarine, have been destroyed in the Gulf and Arabian Sea region. “We are also sinking the Iranian Navy—the entire navy… and we will not stop,” Cooper said in a briefing earlier this week.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) have launched multiple counterattacks, including ballistic missiles and drones targeting US and Israeli assets across the region. The conflict has already disrupted shipping lanes and raised fears over energy supply, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime chokepoint.
Meanwhile, explosions sounded in Tehran on Wednesday as Iran's war with the US and Israel entered a fifth day following earlier strikes on an Iranian nuclear site and retaliatory strikes by the Islamic Republic across the Gulf region.
The explosions around Tehran came at dawn, according to Iran's state television, while Israel's military said its air defences had been activated to intercept incoming Iranian missiles, and explosions were heard around Jerusalem.
Overnight Israeli strikes on towns near Beirut have killed at least six people, Lebanon's Health Ministry said early Wednesday.
Israel struck the towns of Aramoun and Saadiyat just south of Beirut's international airport, killing six and wounding eight others.
It also struck a hotel in the Beirut suburb of Hazmieh. No casualties were immediately reported there.
The strikes came without warning, and the Israeli military did not immediately disclose the targets.
Israeli attacks target Iranian security forces in Tehran
The Israeli military said Wednesday it conducted a series of strikes across Iran's capital targeting its security forces.
It said it hit buildings associated with the Basij, the all-volunteer force of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard that conducted the bloody crackdown on protesters in January that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands detained in the country.
The Israeli military also said it hit buildings associated with Iran's internal security command, which has also suppressed demonstrations in the past.
Israel and the US have said they want to see the Iranian public overthrow its theocracy.
Strikes against counterprotest forces likely are part of that effort.
Published: 04 Mar 2026, 12:27 pm IST
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