A sailor of the Iranian warship IRIS Dena, which was sunk by a US submarine in Indian Ocean off the Sri Lankan coast on March 4, had called his father over phone minutes before the frigate was struck by a torpedo, saying American forces had twice ordered the crew to abandon the warship, according to a report by Iran International, a Persian-language satellite TV channel and news network.Despite the twin US warnings, IRIS Dena’s commander refused to allow the crew to abandon the ship, the report said, quoting a source close to the family of the sailor. The sailor’s father said some crew members had argued with the commander, and the 32 sailors who survived the attack were basically those who managed to escape on lifeboats after the warning, according to the source.As per initial reports, there were 180 crew members on board IRIS Dena. Later, Iranian foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi wrote on X that there were 130 sailors on the frigate. By the time the Sri Lankan navy reached the spot after getting a distress signal from the Iranian warship, it found the frigate had sunk and 32 crew members were floating on lifeboats on high seas. The Lankan navy rescued the 32 sailors and took them ashore. Later, another Iranian naval vessel, IRIS Bushehr, with 208 crew members took refuge in the island nation.In another development, Jayne Howell, the charge d’affaires at US embassy in Colombo, has urged Sri Lanka not to repatriate the 32 survivors of IRIS Dena as well as the 208 crew members of IRIS Bushehr, currently in Sri Lankan custody, according to an internal US State Department cable dated March 6 seen by Reuters. “Sri Lankan authorities should minimise Iranian attempts to use the detainees for propaganda,” it said. Howell also told the Israeli ambassador to India and Sri Lanka that there was no plan to repatriate the crew to Iran. The envoy asked Howell whether there had been any engagement with the crew to encourage “defection”, the cable said.
