Khamenei’s body arrived in Najaf on Tuesday alongside Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and other senior officials. They were received by crowds of mourners carrying portraits of the late supreme leader, while others performed acts of self-flagellation.
His casket, draped in the Iranian flag and enclosed in glass, was accompanied by mourners waving Iranian, red and black flags, symbols of mourning and revenge.
“We the people of Iraq will remain a thorn in the eyes of the enemies,” mourner Jaafar Jawad said. “His arrival to us is the greatest possible honour, and God willing we will remain loyal and repay a little of what we owe him in the holy city of Najaf.”
Funeral prayers in Najaf will be held at the Shrine of Imam Ali, the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, and led by senior Najaf seminary scholar Muhammad Taqi al-Hakim.
In Karbala, another holy city for Shiite Muslims where Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, was killed in 680, prayers at the Imam Hussein Shrine will be led by Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalaei, a representative of Iraq’s highest Shia religious authority.
Khamenei was killed in late February in large-scale US and Israeli strikes on Iran. He was among several senior Iranian leaders killed during the conflict and was 86.
Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has yet to appear publicly during the funeral ceremonies, which are expected to continue over several days. He is believed to be in hiding after reportedly being wounded in the strike that killed his father.
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