Sri Lanka hospital releases 22 rescued from torpedoed Iranian vessel

The attack on Dena was the first military strike far outside the Middle East. Read more at straitstimes.com.

COLOMBO – Sri Lanka discharged 22 Iranian crew from hospital who were plucked from life rafts after their warship was sunk by a US submarine, officials said on March 8.

The crew had been treated at Karapitiya Hospital in southern port city Galle since March 4 after the IRIS Dena was torpedoed just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters.

The attack was the first military strike far outside the Middle East since the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran a week ago.

Those discharged overnight were taken to a beach resort in the same district, as Sri Lanka’s navy ended its search on March 8 for survivors from the vessel. Just over 60 people remain missing, according to an official Sri Lankan estimate.

“Another 10 are still undergoing treatment,” a medical officer at the hospital told AFP. He said the bodies of 84 Iranians retrieved from the Indian Ocean were also at the hospital.

Sri Lanka has denied claims that it was under pressure from Washington to stop the Iranians from returning home, saying Colombo would be guided solely by international law and its own domestic legislation.