COLOMBO, April 15, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Thirty-two Iranian sailors rescued by Sri Lanka after their frigate was torpedoed by a US submarine last month have departed on a flight home, local media reported Tuesday.

The sailors from the IRIS Dena flew out of the island on Tuesday night, two local television networks reported. Sri Lankan defense authorities were not immediately available for comment.

The IRIS Dena was attacked just south of Sri Lanka on March 4, killing 104 sailors, many of them cadets, in the early days of the US and Israeli war against Iran, Iranian authorities say.

The bodies of 84 were recovered and have been repatriated.

Three weeks ago, Iran's ambassador to Sri Lanka, Alireza Delkhosh, said Tehran was in talks with Colombo to repatriate another 219 sailors from a second Iranian ship, the IRIS Bushehr, which was given safe harbour in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said the island provided protection to the Bushehr crew in line with the 1907 Hague Convention, which requires a neutral state to hold combatants of a belligerent state until hostilities end.

Sri Lanka has refused permission for US warplanes to use ground facilities in the country, so as to maintain Colombo's neutrality.

A third Iranian ship, the IRIS Lavan, with 183 crew members, sought shelter in India's Kochi port in early March.