Sri Lanka court orders 84 Iranian sailors’ bodies be handed to Iran embassy, local media says
The Straits Times
They were killed in an attack on an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka’s coast last week. Read more at straitstimes.com.
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COLOMBO – A Sri Lankan court has ordered that the bodies of 84 sailors killed in an attack on an Iranian warship off the island nation’s coast last week be handed over to the Embassy of Iran, local media reported on March 11.
The warship, IRIS Dena, was hit by a torpedo from a US submarine while it was returning from a naval exercise organised by India, amid the US-Israeli war on Iran that has wreaked havoc on global markets, sending oil prices soaring and disrupting trade and travel.
The court order was issued on March 11, following a request from the Galle Harbour Police in the southern port city of Galle, the media reports said.
The bodies are currently at the morgue in Galle’s National Hospital.
Sri Lanka has also granted 30-day entry visas to 208 crew members from a second Iranian vessel who were taken in by the South Asian country after the vessel experienced engine problems in the same region, Deputy Defence Minister Aruna Jayasekera told Reuters.
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