Mattala, Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka is repatriating on Friday the remains of 84 Iranian sailors killed when their frigate was sunk nine days ago by a US submarine, the Foreign Ministry said.

The seamen were killed when IRIS Dena was torpedoed on March 4 just off the coast of Sri Lanka, in a move that extended the Middle East war to the Indian Ocean.

"All domestic procedures have been completed, and the Iranians are bringing a chartered aircraft for the repatriation," spokesperson Thushara Rodrigo told AFP.

"The 32 sailors who were rescued by our navy will remain in Sri Lanka."

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The embalmed remains, in sealed boxes, are to be flown out of Sri Lanka from the Mattala International Airport in the south of the country, officials said.

The first batch of 46 bodies was already at the airport by Friday afternoon awaiting an Iranian chartered cargo plane, an official told AFP.

The bodies, which were removed from the Indian Ocean, were taken to the Karapitiya Hospital in Galle, 72 miles south of the capital, where autopsies were carried out.

A local magistrate ordered that the bodies be handed over to the Iranian embassy in Colombo to be sent back to the next of kin.

There was no immediate comment from the Iranian embassy when contacted by AFP.