The remains of 84 Iranian sailors killed in a US strike in international waters off the southern coast of Sri Lanka are being returned to their home country, Sri Lankan officials said on Friday.
So far, 45 bodies from a cold-storage facility in Galle, a city in southern Sri Lanka, have been transported to Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in preparation for airlifting, the Daily Mirror reported, citing officials.
Galle Chief Magistrate Sameera Dodangoda on Wednesday ordered hospital authorities to hand over the sailors' bodies to the Iranian Embassy in Colombo.
The sailors were among those killed when a US submarine torpedoed the Iranian warship IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean earlier this month. The Sri Lankan Navy launched a rescue mission following the incident.
Iran’s military said 104 sailors were killed in the attack. Sri Lankan authorities said they recovered 84 bodies from the water and rescued 32 sailors, while others remain missing.
Days later, Sri Lanka evacuated 208 crew members from a second Iranian vessel, IRIS Bushehr, after the ship requested assistance from Colombo.
Both vessels had been returning from the Milan Peace 2026 naval drills in India.
Sri Lanka has offered one-month visas to the rescued sailors.
Debris and oil barrels from the sunken IRIS Dena later washed ashore along parts of Sri Lanka’s southern coastline, prompting clean-up efforts and environmental monitoring, local media reported.
Regional tensions surged after the US and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran on February 28, which Tehran says killed more than 1,300 people, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and scores of schoolgirls.
Iran has since retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and Gulf countries hosting US military assets.
Iran has also effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz since March 1. The waterway carries about 20 million barrels of oil per day and roughly 20 percent of the global liquefied natural gas trade.
