Sri Lanka Repatriates Remains of 84 Iranian Sailors Killed After Warship Sinking
The sailors died when the Iranian naval frigate IRIS Dena was torpedoed on March 4 just off the coast of Sri Lanka, an incident that extended the ongoing Middle East conflict into the Indian Ocean.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Sri Lanka on Friday began repatriating the remains of 84 Iranian sailors who were killed when their frigate was sunk nine days ago by a US submarine, the country’s Foreign Ministry said.
The sailors died when the Iranian naval frigate IRIS Dena was torpedoed on March 4 just off the coast of Sri Lanka, an incident that extended the ongoing Middle East conflict into the Indian Ocean.
“All domestic procedures have been completed, and the Iranians are bringing a chartered aircraft for the repatriation,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Thushara Rodrigo told AFP.
He added that the 32 sailors who were rescued by the Sri Lankan navy would remain in Sri Lanka.
Officials said the embalmed remains, placed in sealed boxes, were being transported to Mattala International Airport in southern Sri Lanka for transfer onto an Iranian-chartered cargo plane.
An official told AFP that the first batch of 46 bodies had already arrived at the airport by Friday afternoon and was awaiting the arrival of the aircraft.
The bodies, recovered from the Indian Ocean, were initially taken to Karapitiya Hospital in the coastal city of Galle, about 115 kilometres (72 miles) south of the capital Colombo, where autopsies were conducted.
A local magistrate later ordered that the remains be handed over to the Iranian embassy in Colombo for repatriation to the sailors’ families.