Iranian warship waited 11 hours for Sri Lanka docking clearance before US attack, MP claims

Iranian frigate sunk near Sri Lanka, questions over delay

A political controversy has erupted in Sri Lanka after an opposition lawmaker claimed that an Iranian warship which was later sunk by a United States submarine had been waiting for permission to dock at Galle port for nearly 11 hours. The allegation has raised questions about how regional authorities handled the incident in the hours before the attack.

The Iranian Navy frigate IRIS Dena was torpedoed by a US submarine on 4 March in the Indian Ocean, roughly 40 nautical miles south of the Sri Lankan port city of Galle. The strike sank the vessel and killed at least 87 Iranian sailors, according to Sri Lankan officials involved in the rescue operation.

The ship had been returning to Iran after participating in multinational naval events hosted by India, including the International Fleet Review and the Exercise Milan naval drills in Visakhapatnam.

The incident is considered highly unusual in modern naval warfare because submarine torpedo attacks on warships have become extremely rare in recent decades.

Questions raised in Sri Lankan parliament

Sri Lankan opposition MP Mujibur Rahman told parliament that the Iranian ship had requested permission to enter Galle harbour but did not receive a response for hours. According to his account, the vessel remained about 40 nautical miles offshore waiting for clearance while regional tensions were already escalating.

Rahman questioned why the government had not allowed the ship to berth at the port earlier.

He asked lawmakers why the vessel was forced to wait for nearly half a day despite seeking permission to dock and highlighted that Sri Lanka is bound by international maritime conventions that allow ships in distress to seek assistance.

The Sri Lankan government has not publicly confirmed the full details of the docking request, but officials have acknowledged that the navy received distress signals from the vessel shortly after the attack.

Rescue operations after the strike

Following the torpedo strike, Sri Lanka launched a search and rescue operation involving naval ships and aircraft. Authorities recovered dozens of bodies and rescued several sailors from the water.

Reports indicate that around 180 crew members were believed to have been on board the frigate when it was hit. Sri Lankan naval units and regional forces worked to locate survivors while medical teams in Galle treated injured sailors brought ashore.

Part of a wider conflict

The US defence department later confirmed that an American submarine carried out the strike as part of a broader military campaign targeting Iranian assets during the ongoing regional conflict.

Iran has strongly condemned the attack, calling it an unlawful assault on a naval vessel operating in international waters.

The sinking of the IRIS Dena has now become a diplomatic and political flashpoint across the region. Sri Lanka faces growing scrutiny over whether earlier action on the docking request could have changed the sequence of events before the deadly attack occurred.