ALI KHAMENEI LAID TO REST AT IRAN’S HOLIEST SHRINE

Fri 10 July 2026:

After a week of funeral processions in several cities in Iran and Iraq, Khamenei was buried in his birthplace of Mashhad.

Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been buried at the country’s holiest Shia shrine more than four months after he was killed by a US-Israeli strike on his compound in central Tehran.

State media reported early on Friday that he had been buried in his birthplace of Mashhad at the Shrine of Imam Reza, a vast religious complex with a large golden dome and flanking gilded minarets at the heart of the city.

The burial ceremony was private but followed a week of public mourning and processions that drew huge crowds totalling more than 15 million people, and possibly more than double that according to Iranian estimates.

One person apparently absent from the funeral events, however, was Khamenei’s son and successor as supreme leader, Mojtaba, who has not been seen in public since the attack on February 28 that killed his father and signalled the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran.

Khamenei’s funeral had initially been due to be held in March but was postponed as Iran was plunged into war.

The official public funeral proceedings finally began last Saturday when tens of thousands of Iranians gathered at the Grand Mosalla religious complex in Tehran where Khamenei’s coffin was on display. Invited delegations from Iran’s regional allies Hamas and Islamic Jihad from Gaza, Hezbollah from Lebanon and the Houthis from Yemen were in attendance. An even larger crowd gathered at the mosque the following day.

At least 12 million people thronged the streets of the capital on Monday as the coffin was slowly driven on the back of a truck on a 10km (six-mile) procession to Azadi Square, the vast plaza in western Tehran that has served as the stage for the Islamic Republic’s largest gatherings ever since the 1979 Revolution.

On Tuesday, several hundred thousand people crowded onto the streets of the holy city of Qom for another procession with Khamenei’s coffin, which was then flown to neighbouring Iraq where it was driven on Wednesday through Najaf, the third holiest city in Shia Islam, and Karbala, another city with special status for Shias.

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Mourners demand revenge

Khamenei’s body arrived on a plane early on Thursday in Mashhad, to be transferred to a truck for the final cortege of the funeral. As with the previous processions, the coffins of the four family members killed alongside him in the air strike that began the war were also taken through the streets.

Black-clad mourners pressed in close behind, waving Iranian flags, photographs of the ⁠late Khamenei and red placards with revolutionary slogans.

The mourners also chanted slogans demanding vengeance against US President Donald Trump for his role in the assassination.

“I swear by the blood of the supreme leader, Trump, we will kill you,” they shouted, with women holding up placards reading “Kill Trump”.

For the final stretch of the procession, the crowds were so thick that the truck was unable to pass through, so Khamenei’s coffin was taken by helicopter to the Imam Reza shrine where he had requested to be buried.

A few hours before Khamenei’s burial, multiple blasts were heard in areas around Bushehr – home to one of Iran’s nuclear plants – and the nearby city of Choghadak, Mehr News Agency reported. It said three more explosions were heard in the southern city of Konarak.

But the United States Central Command told Al Jazeera that the US military had not carried out any strikes in Iran in the past few hours.

The United States and Iran signed a preliminary deal on June 17 intended to halt the fighting while the two sides negotiated an agreement to end the war for good, but the ceasefire has only partially held, with both sides trading attacks on several occasions.

After Iran attacked three tankers in the strategically crucial Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, US forces attacked targets in Iran on two consecutive nights, and Trump declared at a summit of NATO leaders in Ankara on Wednesday that the ceasefire deal was over.

“I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them any more, they’re scum… they’re led by sick people and they’re vicious, violent people,” he said. “There’s something wrong with them. They’re cuckoo. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.”

Iran responded to the US air strikes by firing missiles and drones at US-linked targets in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan.

But despite the latest skirmishes, neither side has shown any desire to resume full-scale hostilities.

-Source: Al Jazeera

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