The Sri Lankan government said on Thursday that it was trying to “safeguard lives” on another Iranian ship that was in international waters close to the island nation’s maritime border, reported Reuters.

“The ship is not in Sri Lankan waters,” minister Nalinda ⁠Jayatissa was quoted as saying by Sri Lanka-based Newswire. “It is located in the exclusive economic zone. The government and the defence ministry are aware of the ship.”

It was unclear if the ship had been hit or had made a distress call to the Sri Lankan authorities.

The statement came two days after the United States sank an Iranian warship off the Sri Lankan coast.

The warship IRIS Dena was torpedoed by a US submarine in international waters on Tuesday. At least 87 persons died in the incident and 61 were missing. The Sri Lankan Navy had rescued 32.

This came amid a rapidly expanding conflict in West Asia that began on Saturday when Israel and the US launched a joint military operation targeting the Iranian government. Israel has been claiming that Iran is close to obtaining a nuclear weapon, while Tehran has maintained that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.

Tehran retaliated by striking Israel and US military bases in the region, and targeting major cities in other Gulf countries and some ships.

On Thursday, Jayatissa told the Sri Lankan Parliament that the “government is involved in providing maximum intervention pertaining to the lives of those onboard” the second ship.

“We will give a report once we complete the mission,” he added.

Jayatissa said that the exclusive economic zone is 12 nautical miles from Sri Lanka. He added that “any country is allowed to travel, and there is freedom of navigation”.

Speaking about the attack on IRIS Dena, he said the incident took place 19 nautical miles from Sri Lanka, reported Newswire.

The minister said that the country’s Navy had started rescue operations after receiving information about bodies in the waters.

“At the time, we did not probe whether it was a result of a military or torpedo attack or war-related,” he said. “We acted purely on a humanitarian basis. 32 people were rescued and admitted to the Karapitiya Hospital. One person is in the ICU. A total of 84 dead bodies were recovered.”

On Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said that the warship that was struck was “a guest of India’s Navy” and had been attacked without warning. He said that the US would “come to bitterly regret [the] precedent it has set”.

The Iranian warship had attended the International Fleet Review, which was held between February 15 and February 25 in Vishakhapatnam, where it had been docked alongside ships from several other countries.

New Delhi has not yet commented on the incident.

Top updates: US will ‘bitterly regret’ sinking Iranian warship, says Tehran