Urgent request to dock is submitted by vessel after US submarine sank Iranian warship in same area on Tuesday

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Sri Lanka has evacuated 208 crew members from an Iranian navy vessel that made an emergency request to dock, a day after a US submarine strike sank another Iranian frigate, killing more than 80 people on board.

Sri Lanka’s president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, on Thursday confirmed that the country’s navy would take over Iranian military support ship IRIS Bushehr and allow it to dock at the north-eastern port of Trincomalee.