Sri Lanka on Friday handed over the bodies of 45 Iranian sailors killed in an attack on an Iranian warship off the island’s southern coast to Iran’s embassy, officials said. ADVERTISEMENTSri Lanka had said last Wednesday that it recovered 84 bodies of Iranian sailors after a US submarine attack sank the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena off Galle on the island nation’s southern coast. Authorities had brought the bodies to the Karapitiya hospital along with 32 survivors of the US torpedo attack last Thursday. The Sri Lankan government had earlier said the bodies would be kept in the country until the situation improved to allow their repatriation. The 32 survivors were discharged on Sunday and later moved to the nearby Sri Lankan airbase at Koggala in Galle.

Source: The Telegraph March 13, 2026 10:51 UTC