Khamenei buried at Iran’s holiest shrine

TEHRAN, Iran (MNTV) – Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been buried more than four months after he was killed by a US-Israeli strike, reports Al Jazeera.

State media reported early on Friday that he had been buried in his birthplace of Mashhad at the Shrine of Imam Reza.

The burial ceremony was private but followed a week of public mourning and processions that drew huge crowds totalling more than 15 million people.

One person apparently absent from the funeral events, however, was Khamenei’s son and successor as supreme leader, Mojtaba, who has not been seen in public since the attack on February 28 that killed his father.

Khamenei’s funeral had initially been due to be held in March but was postponed as Iran was plunged into war.

The official public funeral proceedings finally began last Saturday when tens of thousands of Iranians gathered at the Grand Mosalla religious complex in Tehran where Khamenei’s coffin was on display. Invited delegations from Iran’s regional allies Hamas and Islamic Jihad from Gaza, Hezbollah from Lebanon and the Houthis from Yemen were in attendance.

At least 12 million people thronged the streets of the capital on Monday as the coffin was slowly driven on the back of a truck on a 10km (six-mile) procession to Azadi Square, the vast plaza in western Tehran that has served as the stage for the Islamic Republic’s largest gatherings ever since the 1979 Revolution.