Funeral ceremonies for Iran's slain supreme leader underway in Qom

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - TEHRAN — A massive funeral procession has begun in the Iranian city of Qom as part of the final rites for the country's slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Tens of thousands of mourners gathered at Jamkaran Mosque, just south of Qom, for funeral prayers for Khamenei.

The ceremonies are scheduled to continue in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq on Wednesday, before a final burial in his hometown of Mashhad on Thursday.

Khamenei's body arrived in Qom on Monday evening, hours after a sea of people filled the streets of Tehran for his funeral procession.

According to state-run Tasnim News Agency, funeral prayers began at Jamkaran Mosque at 6 am local time on Tuesday, led by senior cleric Ayatollah Abdullah Javadi Amoli, before mourners set off toward the shrine of Fatima Masumeh via Prophet Muhammad Boulevard.

Aerial photographs showed hundreds of thousands of mourners taking part in the farewell ceremony in Qom, it added.

Muslim delegations from Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan also attended.

Qom is widely considered the second most sacred city in Iran and home to the Qom Seminary, Iran’s preeminent institution for Shiite scholarship.

Khamenei undertook advanced religious studies at the seminary in Qom, including under his predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The city is also a key industrial and petrochemical hub and has been targeted by US-Israeli strikes throughout the war. The city is also near the secretive, heavily guarded Fordow nuclear site, which was bombed by the US in June 2025.

“The body of the martyred leader has arrived in Qom,” south of the capital, state television said on social media, alongside footage showing a helicopter carrying Khamenei’s body landing in the city.

Earlier Monday, images showed huge numbers stretching along major boulevards in Tehran, while state television said millions turned out for an event comparable to the giant funeral of Khamenei’s predecessor Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.

Ordinary Iranians joined top officials for the event, in which a truck carrying the bodies of Khamenei and four family members killed in a February 28 US-Israeli strike inched its way to Azadi Square in the west of the city.

Clad in black, mourners threw petals onto the coffins, including the tiny casket of Khamenei’s granddaughter, who was only 14 months old when she was killed, according to state media.

“We will avenge the blood of the martyrs and our martyred imam from these criminals,” said a man, 63, who gave his surname as Kazemi.

People carried blood-red flags — symbols of vengeance in Shia Islam — as well as slogans including “Kill Trump” and images of Mojtaba Khamenei.

“I came with honor and pride to show all the people of the world how much we loved him (Ali Khamenei) and how committed we are to the system, the people and the Islamic republic,” said Melika Nourian, 22, a university student.

Another truck was adorned with images of top Iranian officials killed in recent years, including the head of the overseas operations arm of the Revolutionary Guards, the Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US strike on Iraq in 2020.

In sweltering heat that nudged 40C, trucks sprayed mourners with water to cool them along a procession route that covered around 20 kilometers.

“The leadership of the martyr taught everyone that Iran’s greatest asset is its people and their unity,” President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was among the mourners, wrote on X.

Other figures shown attending by state media included Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and the current head of the Quds Force, Esmail Qaani.

The head of Iran’s supreme national security council, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, whose predecessor Ali Larijani was killed in an airstrike in March, made his first appearance in public since being named at the procession, state television showed.

“The presence of millions of people with red flags and slogans, demanding bloodshed, is a clear message from the Iranian nation to its enemies,” Iranian media quoted him as saying.

State media also showed images of Mahmood Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president from 2005 to 2013, taking part.

But as on previous days, there was still no sign of Mojtaba Khamenei at his father and predecessor's funeral, fueling speculation over his whereabouts and condition. Iranian officials have said he was wounded in an airstrike and it remains uncertain if he will appear for the ceremonies.

The ceremonies culminate with Khamenei’s burial in his hometown of Mashhad in northeastern Iran on Thursday.

The government is eager to tout the mass mobilization in the wake of the war but also after January mass protests, which rights groups say were quelled by a crackdown that killed thousands of people.

Authorities are also eager to avoid a repeat of the chaos that marred the 1989 funeral of Khomeini, which drew an estimated 10 million people, but where crowd surges killed more than 10 people and injured over 10,000, according to state media.

Jafar Miadfar, the head of emergency services, told state news agency no fatalities have been recorded so far.