Sri Lanka to repatriate remains of 84 Iranian sailors killed in US attack
Al Jazeera
The 32 sailors who were rescued by Sri Lanka’s navy will remain in the island nation, said the Foreign Ministry.
Sri Lanka is repatriating the remains of 84 Iranian sailors who died when their frigate was sunk nine days ago by a United States submarine torpedo attack, as it sailed in international waters far from the theatre of war, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The repatriation was announced on Friday and will be carried out with a chartered aircraft sent by Iran, spokesman Thushara Rodrigo told the AFP news agency. The Iranian embassy also confirmed the bodies were set to return, the Reuters news agency reported.
The sailors were killed when IRIS Dena was torpedoed on March 4 just off the coast of Sri Lanka, in a move that extended the ongoing Middle East war to the Indian Ocean, and has been criticised as a flagrant violation of international law.
“The 32 sailors who were rescued by our navy will remain in Sri Lanka,” Rodrigo said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had been contacted regarding the injured sailors, but they were not involved in the repatriation of the bodies, he added.
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