Funeral procession for Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei under way
The funeral procession for Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has begun in Tehran, with burial scheduled for Thursday in Mashhad. Khamenei and four family members were killed in a US-Israeli airstrike in February.
The funeral procession for late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei began in Tehran on Monday, as authorities brace for crowds that could rival those at his predecessor’s funeral nearly four decades ago. Khamenei was killed on the first day of the US-Israel war on Iran, when airstrikes hit his office in Tehran on February 28, also killing four family members.
After lying in state for two days at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla religious complex, where thousands paid their respects, the body began its journey through the capital accompanied by large crowds of mourners, state broadcaster IRIB reported. Authorities hope to avoid the chaos that marred the 1989 funeral of Ruhollah Khomeini, which drew an estimated 10 million people and resulted in more than 10 deaths and over 10,000 injuries, according to state news agency IRNA.
Monday’s procession will be followed by similar events in the clerical hub of Qom on Tuesday and in Iraq’s holy cities of Najaf and Karbala on Wednesday, culminating in Khamenei’s burial in his hometown of Mashhad in northeastern Iran on Thursday.
Images show mourners in Tehran’s Revolution Square holding portraits of Khamenei and his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has been named Iran’s new supreme leader. The coffin was transported on a truck through the crowds.
