Ali Khamenei Buried at Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad After Six Days of State Mourning

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme religious leader, was buried on Thursday at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, his birthplace and one of Shia Islam’s holiest cities, after six days of state mourning.

According to a Reuters report, Mashhad’s main roads and alleyways began filling with members of the public from the afternoon. The late leader’s coffin was carried on a decorated truck and moved slowly through densely packed streets to the Imam Reza shrine, as millions of mourners lined both sides of the route.

Crowds dressed in black carried Iranian national flags, portraits of Khamenei, and red placards and banners bearing slogans. Under Shia religious tradition, the red placards and flags were being carried as a pledge to avenge Khamenei’s killing, the report said.

All funeral prayers and burial rites were completed within the Imam Reza shrine complex in accordance with Khamenei’s final wish.

Reuters also reported that, on the day of Khamenei’s burial, US and Iranian forces launched extensive missile and counter-missile attacks in the Persian Gulf and along Iran’s coastline, further intensifying tensions across the Middle East.

Earlier on Thursday, despite intense heat, Mashhad resonated with chants calling for revenge as hundreds of thousands, described elsewhere in the report as millions, gathered in the city to attend the burial of Iran’s supreme religious leader. The burial brought formal state mourning ceremonies to an end.

Khamenei was killed on February 28, the first day of the war, the report said. Also killed in the same attack were his granddaughter, daughter, son-in-law, and Zahra Haddad Adel, the wife of his son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei. All of them were being buried together on Thursday.

The report added that there were rumours Mojtaba Khamenei was also seriously injured in the attack and has not yet appeared in public.