• Galle Magistrate orders release of 84 bodies to Iranian Embassy

Iran has accused the US of obstructing rescue operations after the sinking of its IRIS Dena vessel near Sri Lanka earlier this month (March).

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the vessel had been invited by the Indian Navy to take part in a joint Naval exercise and port visit when it was attacked near the coasts of India and Sri Lanka on 4 March. In a post on the social media platform X, Baghaei described the attack as a “brutal act amounting to a war crime” and alleged that the US had “deliberately obstructed rescue operations for the sailors”.

Iran says that 104 sailors were killed in the incident. Earlier, Iran reported that the bodies of 84 of the sailors have since been identified and will be repatriated to Iran with the cooperation of the Sri Lankan Government. Iran said that the bodies of dozens of sailors killed when the US attacked and sank the IRIS Dena vessel close to Sri Lanka will soon be returned to the country. In a statement reported by Iran’s Fars News Agency, the Army’s public relations office said that 84 of the 104 bodies had been identified and would soon be transferred back to Iran. The repatriation was being carried out with the efforts of Iran’s Foreign Affairs Ministry and the cooperation of the Sri Lankan Government.

The bodies of 84 Iranian sailors, currently placed in two mobile cold storage units at the Galle National Hospital in Karapitiya, have been ordered to be handed over to officials of the Iranian Embassy in Sri Lanka. The order was issued yesterday (11) by the Galle Chief Magistrate, Sameera Dodangoda. Accordingly, the Magistrate ordered the Hospital’s Director to release the remains to the Iranian Embassy representatives. The directive was made following a request submitted to the Galle Magistrate’s Court by the Galle Harbour Police.

The announcement comes after the ship was sunk by a US submarine last week. Media reports previously suggested that Washington was pressing Sri Lanka not to repatriate the bodies of the Iranian sailors.

With inputs from Al Jazeera