Colombo, March 13 Sri Lanka handed over the bodies of 45 sailors killed in an attack on an Iranian warship off the country's coast to Iran's embassy on Friday, officials said.
Chief Magistrate Sameera Dodangoda issued the order on March 11 to the Director of the National Hospital at Karapitiya, following a request from the Galle harbor police.
Last week on Wednesday, Sri Lanka said it had recovered 84 bodies of Iranian sailors after the US submarine attack sank the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena off Galle on the island's southern coast.
The ship was returning to Iran from Visakhapatnam, India, where it had participated in a naval fleet review exercise.
The 45 bodies would be repatriated to Iran on Friday from the southern international airport at Mattala, Defence Ministry Secretary Sampath Thuiyakontha told reporters.
The bodies were brought to the hospital along with 32 survivors from the US torpedo attack last Thursday.
The Sri Lankan government had earlier said they would keep the bodies until the situation improved so as to repatriate them.
They were being kept under makeshift refrigeration as the hospital's morgue capacity was found inadequate.
The 32 survivors had been discharged on Sunday and sent to the nearby Sri Lankan airbase at Koggala, Galle.