Portugal Colonial - Sri Lanka hospital releases 22 rescued from torpedoed Iranian vessel

The crew had been treated at Karapitiya Hospital in the southern port city of Galle since Wednesday after the IRIS Dena was torpedoed just outside Sri Lanka's territorial waters.

The attack on Dena was the first military strike far outside the Middle East since the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran a week ago.

Those discharged overnight had been taken to a beach resort in the same district, as Sri Lanka's navy ended its search on Sunday for survivors from the vessel. Just over 60 people remain missing, according to an official Sri Lankan estimate.

"Another 10 are still undergoing treatment," a medical officer at the hospital told AFP. He said the bodies of 84 Iranians retrieved from the Indian Ocean were also at the hospital.

Sri Lanka has denied claims that it was under pressure from Washington to stop the Iranians from returning home, saying Colombo would be guided solely by international law and its own domestic legislation.

The survivors from the Dena were being handled according to international humanitarian law, and the government had contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross for assistance, officials said.

The island is also providing safe haven for another 219 Iranian sailors from a second ship, the IRIS Bushehr, which was allowed to enter Sri Lankan waters after the Dena was sunk.

The crew from the Bushehr have been moved to a Sri Lanka Navy camp at Welisara, just north of the capital Colombo, and their vessel has been taken over by Sri Lanka's navy.

Sri Lanka announced it was taking the Bushehr to the north-eastern port of Trincomalee, but an engine failure and other technical and administrative issues had delayed the movement, a navy spokesman said.

-Pressure denied -

A US State Department spokesperson said the disposition of the Bushehr personnel and Iranian crew rescued at sea was up to Sri Lanka.

"The United States, of course, respects and recognises Sri Lanka's sovereignty in the handling of this situation," the spokesperson told AFP in Washington.

India, meanwhile, said Saturday that it had allowed a third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan, to dock in one of its ports on "humane" grounds after it too reported engine problems.

"I think it was the humane thing to do, and I think we were guided by that principle," Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Saturday.

The three ships were part of a multinational naval exercise held by India before the war in the Middle East started last week.

The Lavan docked in the south-west Indian port of Kochi on Wednesday. "A lot of the people on board were young cadets. They have disembarked and are in a nearby facility," Jaishankar said.

Sri Lankan authorities meanwhile reported an oil slick at another nearby beach resort and said about 50 workers and volunteers had been deployed for a clean-up, while boats were being sent to check for more pollution.

"We saw a thin oil patch at Hikkaduwa beach yesterday," said Samantha Gunasekara, chairman of the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA).

He added that parts of a damaged life raft, an barrel of lubricants and footwear had washed ashore, and officials were trying to establish if they were from the sunk Dena.

A.Aguiar--PC