Court orders Iranian sailors' bodies be handed to Iran

A Sri Lankan court has ordered that the bodies of 84 sailors killed in an attack on an Iranian warship off the island nation's coast be handed over to the embassy of Iran, local media reports.

The warship, IRIS Dena, was hit by a torpedo from a US submarine last week while it was returning from a naval exercise organised by India, amid the US-Israeli war on Iran that has wreaked havoc on global markets, sent oil prices soaring, and disrupted trade and travel.

The court order was issued on Wednesday following a request from the Galle Harbour Police in the southern port city of Galle, the media reports said.

The bodies are at the morgue in Galle's National Hospital.

Sri Lanka had also granted 30-day entry visas to 208 crew members from a second Iranian vessel who were taken in by the South Asian country after the vessel experienced engine problems in the same region, Deputy Defence Minister Aruna Jayasekera told Reuters.

The Sri Lankan foreign ministry was in touch with the Iranian embassy in Colombo about the crew and the mission is in turn consulting Tehran, Jayasekara said.

"We are expecting a response from Tehran over the next few days," he said.

A spokesperson for Sri Lanka's cabinet said on Tuesday that the second vessel, IRIS Booshehr, was 17km from the coast and would eventually be moved.

Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake last week said the ship would be moved to the Trincomalee harbour on the east coast.

Reuters reported that Washington was pressing Colombo to not repatriate the survivors from the two Iranian vessels.

Thirty-two people survived the attack on IRIS Dena.

Both Washington and Tehran are key trade partners for Sri Lanka.

The US accounts for about 40 per cent of its apparel exports and Iran is one of its main tea buyers.

A third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan with 183 crew members, is docked in the southern Indian port of Kochi.