Sri Lanka hands over bodies of 45 Iranian sailors killed in tanker attack to embassy

Sri Lanka has repatriated the remains of 84 Iranian sailors who were killed when their frigate was sunk by a U.S. submarine, an official said.

Last week on Wednesday (March 4, 2026), Sri Lanka said it had recovered 84 bodies of Iranian sailors after the U.S. submarine attack sank the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena off Galle on the island’s southern coast.

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The ship was returning to Iran from Visakhapatnam, where it had participated in a naval fleet review exercise.