Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Buried in Mashhad, 'Kill Trump' Placards Surface at Funeral

Iran held the funeral of its slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Mashhad, following his death from a recent strike.

Iran on Thursday buried its slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the revered Shrine of Imam Reza in the holy city of Mashhad, days after he was killed in a strike. His son and designated successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, remained out of public view amid reports that he was disfigured in the attack that claimed his father’s life.

The burial ceremony came after a week of nationwide funeral processions, rallies and mourning events, unfolding against the backdrop of renewed tensions with the United States following weeks of relative calm.

Thousands gathered in Mashhad on Thursday morning, with mourners carrying Iranian flags, portraits of the late Supreme Leader and placards bearing revolutionary slogans. The city’s iconic Shrine of Imam Reza, with its golden dome and towering minarets, formed the backdrop to the funeral procession as crowds paid their final respects to Khamenei.

As Khamenei’s body was transported around Iran and Iraq over the past week, the Islamic Republic’s clerical leaders encouraged huge crowds to attend in an effort to vaunt the might and ideological fire of their theocratic state.

However, despite it having survived a months-long blitz by its strongest enemies the United States and Israel, Iran faces huge internal challenges and the legacy of Khamenei’s 37-year rule is bitterly disputed.

The whereabouts of Mojtaba Khamenei, proclaimed Supreme Leader by a clerical assembly a week after his father’s death, has remained a mystery to Iranians.

He has not appeared in public since the war began with the strike that killed Ali Khamenei on February 28, and while he has issued written statements, no image or video or voice recording of him has been issued.

He suffered debilitating injuries in that same strike, his face disfigured and limbs badly wounded.

Senior sources in Tehran have said he is recovering but that he has not yet been well enough to manage public appearances and state security services are also trying to limit his exposure in case of more U.S. attacks.

As crowds jostled in Mashhad awaiting Khamenei’s funeral cortege, the crowd chanted slogans demanding revenge on US President Donald Trump for his killing.

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

The roads leading to the shrine were a sea of black-clad mourners on Thursday, some responding to shouted chants in praise of Khamenei and against Iran’s enemies, including the old revolutionary slogan of “Death to America”.

As the crowds awaited the coffins of Khamenei and his family in the sweltering July heat, hoses pumped water high into the air to spray across the mourners and keep them cool.

Khamenei’s remains, along with those of four family members killed alongside him, have already been paraded through Tehran, the Shi’ite Muslim clerical centre of Qom, and the Iraqi shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala.

At each event, huge crowds have thronged the streets to the mournful accompaniment of sung Shi’ite laments and chanted revolutionary slogans.

Martyrdom holds a central place in Shi’ite theology, and Khamenei’s death at the hands of foreign enemies has played into a religious and political tradition that runs deep through the Islamic Republic.

The funeral comes at a critical moment for Iran, turning the page of nearly four decades of Khamenei’s rule and months after the latest round of mass nationwide protests against the Islamic Republic.

Security forces put down that unrest, sparked by anger over the sanctions-throttled economy, by killing thousands of demonstrators in a wave of repression that echoed other bouts of violence over recent years.

Security forces put down that unrest, sparked by anger over the sanctions-throttled economy, by killing thousands of demonstrators in a wave of repression that echoed other bouts of violence over recent years.

While analysts see Iran as having emerged from the war strategically strengthened, with its grip over the vital Strait of Hormuz intact, it has suffered widespread damage that has added to internal economic woes.

The late Khamenei was appointed supreme leader in 1989, a decade after the Islamic revolution, and over the decades he consolidated political, economic and military power in his office.

That effort, which increasingly marginalised the elected president and parliament, was conducted in concert with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that grew in influence throughout Khamenei’s rule.

Mojtaba Khamenei was appointed with the backing of the Guards, who are now seen as the dominant force in Iranian political and strategic thinking.

(With inputs from Reuters)