Mourners flood Iran capital for Khamenei funeral procession

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Iranians flooded Tehran on Monday during the funeral procession for former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike at the start of the U.S.-Israeli conflict in Iran.

Monday saw the biggest day of crowds marching through the capital city’s streets, with tens of thousands tightly crammed in one of Tehran’s central boulevards, Reuters reported. Khamenei’s casket, draped with the Iranian flag, was accompanied by four others carrying the bodies of his family members also killed in the strike that took his life. A large truck carried their caskets.

Mourners threw objects, such as scarves or other personal effects, at the caskets to be blessed and to show devotion. Other attendants sprayed water on mourners to keep them cool from the summer heat.

Khamenei’s sons have been present during the procession, though his son and successor as supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has been notably absent from the funeral. The new supreme leader was reportedly injured in the Feb. 28 strike that killed his father. He has not been seen publicly since.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was among those who took to the streets with other mourners, Reuters reported. He took part in prayers with other mourners behind the Ayatollah’s coffin during a public ceremony in the courtyard of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla.

“The leadership of the martyr taught everyone that Iran’s greatest asset is its people and their unity,” he said in a post on the social platform X, translated from Persian. “Today, too, by acting upon the divine command ‘that you stand for Allah in twos and singly,’ with empathy, concord, and sincere service to the people, we will continue the path of Iran’s honor, progress, and glory.”

The caskets were on a 12-hour journey from Mehrabad International Airport before being flown later on Monday to the Shiite city of Qom, Iranian state media reported. Khamenei will be honored there on Tuesday, ultimately to be buried in the Imam Reza shrine in his birthplace of Mashhad on Thursday.

Prominent members of Iran’s Shiite proxies are expected to attend ceremonies in the shrine cities of Najaf and Kerbala on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

Khamenei was a longtime critic of the U.S., becoming Iran’s figurehead following the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989, the country’s first supreme leader in the wake of the Iranian Revolution a decade before.

The war that followed Khamenei’s death has largely been put on pause after the U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding last month, giving both countries 60 days to finalize a lasting peace deal.

Ali Abdollahi, commander of Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, on Thursday warned the U.S. and Israel against attacking Iran as the procession takes place, urging the countries to “avoid any miscalculation and to think about the harsh retaliation our armed forces would make to any threat and aggression against our country.”

The Associated Press contributed.

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Ali Khamenei

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Masoud Pezeshkian

Mojtaba Khamenei

ruhollah khomeini

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