Washington urges Colombo not to repatriate survivors hit by US submarine in March 4
Trucks carry bodies of Iranian sailors, who died following a submarine attack on Iranian military ship, IRIS Dena, off the coast of Sri Lanka, to an airport, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Galle, Sri Lanka, March 13, 2026. PHOTO: REUTERS
The bodies of 84 Iranian sailors killed in a US submarine attack on a warship off Sri Lanka’s coast last week will be repatriated, a source in the Iranian embassy in Colombo and Sri Lankan media reported on Friday.
Iranian warship IRIS Dena was struck by a torpedo from a US submarine on March 4 while it was returning from a naval exercise in India, amid the US-Israeli war on Iran that has disrupted markets and global trade.
A Sri Lankan court this week ordered that the bodies of the sailors killed in the attack, currently stored in a morgue at the National Hospital in the southern port city of Galle, be handed over to the Iranian embassy.
The bodies will be repatriated on Friday by a special flight departing from Mattala International Airport in southern Sri Lanka, local media reported, citing the Sri Lankan defence ministry.
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“Arrangements are being made to transport the bodies of the Iranian crew from the hospital to the Mattala airport,” a source in the Iranian embassy in Colombo told Reuters, without elaborating on when the flight would depart.
Reuters pictures showed a police vehicle leading large trucks carrying the bodies through a busy street.
240 Iranian crew remain in Srilanka
Sri Lanka’s health, foreign and defence ministries did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. The Sri Lankan navy said it was not involved in the transport and repatriation efforts.
Sri Lanka has also granted 30-day entry visas to 208 crew members from a second Iranian ship, IRIS Booshehr, who were taken in after the vessel experienced engine problems in the same region.
The country’s foreign ministry is in touch with the Iranian embassy in Colombo about the crew, which in turn is consulting Tehran, the defence ministry previously said.
Reuters reported last week that Washington was pressing Colombo not to repatriate the survivors from the two vessels.
Thirty-two people survived the attack on IRIS Dena.
Both Washington and Tehran are key trade partners for Sri Lanka. The United States accounts for about 40% of the country’s apparel exports, while Iran is one of its main tea buyers.
