Huge crowds gathered in Mashhad on Thursday as Iran prepared to bury late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, closing a week of funeral processions held under the shadow of renewed attacks between the United States and Iran.
Khamenei was set to be buried in his hometown near the shrine of Imam Reza, a major Shia religious site in eastern Iran. Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, head of the late leader’s office, said Khamenei had requested burial in Mashhad.
The ceremony followed processions in Tehran, Qom and the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces, a paramilitary group also known as Hashd al-Shaabi, said more than 2.3 million people joined the Najaf procession on Wednesday.
Iranian media reported that millions attended the Tehran procession, with officials describing it as the largest public gathering in the country’s modern history. Those figures could not be independently verified.
Khamenei was killed on February 28 in US and Israeli air strikes on Tehran, along with several relatives. His remains, and those of four family members killed with him, were carried through multiple cities before arriving in Mashhad on Thursday, according to footage shared by Iran’s official news agency.
The ceremony took place after Washington and Tehran traded attacks for a second day despite a promised pause in US strikes around the funeral. Iranian officials said overnight US attacks on the Tehran-Mashhad railway line had put it out of service, but had not delayed the burial.
Mourners in Mashhad waved Iranian flags and photographs of Khamenei. Some chanted threats against US President Donald Trump, including: “I swear by the blood of the supreme leader, Trump, we will kill you,” Al Jazeera reported.
Khamenei’s son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, has not appeared publicly since taking over. Officials have said he was wounded in the strikes that killed his father, but the severity of his injuries remains unclear.
