Second Iranian ship heading to Sri Lanka after submarine attack

A second Iranian warship was heading towards Sri Lanka's territorial waters on Thursday, a day after a US submarine destroyed an Iranian frigate, killing at least 87 sailors.



Media minister Nalinda Jayatissa said the second Iranian warship was just outside Sri Lankan waters, but gave no further details.



President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was meeting top officials on Thursday to discuss a response to an Iranian request to enter the safety of the island's waters.



They said the vessel was carrying more than 100 crew members and feared they too could be targeted the same way a sister vessel was sunk by a US submarine just off Sri Lanka's southern coast on Wednesday.



The sinking came as the war sparked by a joint US-Israel attack on Iran continued to spread across the Middle East and beyond.



Authorities in the southern port city of Galle, meanwhile, were making preparations on Thursday to hand over the remains of 87 Iranian sailors killed in the torpedo attack claimed by the US military.