Massive crowds gather in Mashhad as Iran buries Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei amid regional strikes

What happened: Iran buried Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, where large crowds gathered; Iranian state media and officials reported the transfer and funeral on the morning after coffins arrived from Iraq. Where: Mashhad, at the shrine of Imam Reza. Who announced: Iranian television and the Revolutionary Guards provided footage and statements about the ceremonies and related military exchanges. When: The burial followed six days of public mourning and came after coffins landed in Mashhad on Thursday morning.

Thousands of mourners dressed in black marched along a main boulevard in central Mashhad, waving Iranian flags and red banners symbolizing vengeance, according to televised footage. The coffins of Khamenei and four family members had been flown from Iraq, where large processions took place in Najaf and Karbala earlier.

Officials said Khamenei was killed on 28 February in an Israeli strike on his residence in Tehran, an event that triggered open hostilities between Iran, the US and Israel. He was succeeded as supreme leader by his son Mojtaba, who has not appeared in public since reportedly being seriously wounded in the same attack.

The state-organized funeral program aimed to project unity and strength after a war that has caused heavy casualties and after a deadly January crackdown on mass protests. Ceremonies were held over six days in five Iranian cities and in neighboring Iraq, culminating with the Mashhad burial.

The funeral period was overshadowed by renewed military exchanges between Iran and the United States. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards accused the US of bombing two railway bridges on the Tehran–Mashhad line overnight, calling the strikes an effort to overshadow the funeral, while the US said its operations targeted Iran’s capacity to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

US officials also reported strikes intended to degrade Iranian targeting of shipping; Tehran responded, the Revolutionary Guards said, by attacking US military facilities and infrastructure in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. These actions occurred after a memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran three weeks earlier sought to halt hostilities and open the Strait of Hormuz pending a final deal.

Mourners held photos of Khamenei and placards calling for the death of US President Donald Trump, whom Iranian media blamed alongside Israel’s prime minister for ordering the joint attack that precipitated the war. Above the boulevard, official banners carried slogans such as “We must rise,” televised footage showed.

The Imam Reza mausoleum, a ninth-century complex with a gold dome and minarets and a site visited annually by millions, was chosen as Khamenei’s final resting place. He was born in Mashhad and studied locally before moving to Qom; appointed supreme leader in 1989, he led Iran for 37 years, consolidating authority over politics and the armed forces and adopting hard-line stances toward the US and Israel.

The burial concluded the state’s planned ceremonies, while diplomatic efforts to reach a broader truce faced setbacks. Mediators in Doha had reported progress in indirect talks between Iranian and US negotiators after recent exchanges of strikes, but US remarks suggested the earlier memorandum of understanding may be in jeopardy.