Sri Lanka offloads 208 crew members from second Iranian ship a day after US strike sinks frigate

Rescuers still searching for 10 missing

The first ship, IRIS Dena, was sunk on Wednesday, 19 nautical miles off Sri Lanka's southern port city of Galle, and two freezers had been dispatched to store the 87 bodies recovered from the sea, he added.

Tehran has asked Colombo to help repatriate the bodies, Sri Lanka's deputy minister for health and mass media, Hansaka Wijemuni, told Reuters, adding that a timeframe had not yet been determined.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the warship was struck in international waters without warning, thousands of miles from the Persian Gulf, where US and Israeli forces are striking Iran and Tehran is retaliating with missile and drone attacks.