Khamenei died on February 28, killed in an Israeli strike on the first day of the war between the US, Israel and Iran. The funeral procession started July 4 and moved through Tehran, Qom, Najaf and Karbala before the body came back to Iran for burial.Crowds in Iraq ran bigger than expected, and that pushed the Mashhad burial back to 2.30pm local time. Mashhad's governor said he expected as many as 15 million people to turn out for the burial alone, and even during six days of mourning, US President Donald Trump didn't hold to a promised pause in attacks.Strikes hit the Tehran to Mashhad railway line overnight, knocking out the route and stranding passengers, though officials said it didn't delay the burial itself. It's a strange kind of funeral, one held under the sound of ongoing airstrikes, and that detail alone says something about where Iran stands right now.
Khamenei was laid to rest at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad, the city where he was born decades ago.He's buried alongside four family members killed in the same February strike, including his infant granddaughter and his daughter. A 101 year old cleric, Hossein Noori Hamedani, led the funeral prayer, and Khamenei's son Mojtaba, named as the new supreme leader, still hasn't appeared in public since his father's death.
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