NAJAF/KARBALA: The slain supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, will be laid to rest at the shrine of Imam Ali Raza, the eighth Shia imam, in Mashhad, on Thursday (today) after millions of mourners attended his funeral in Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala.

Huge crowds thronged the streets of Najaf and packed the courtyards of its majestic shrine of Imam Ali where the coffin was brought from Iran before being flown to Karb­ala. Authorities declared Wednesday a public holiday in Iraq.

Six days of public funeral ceremonies, including a dedicated day in neighbouring Iraq, were planned for Ayatollah Khamenei who along with family members was assassinated in a joint US-Israel strike on Iran on Feb 28.

In Najaf, despite the scorching heat, millions of people filled the streets since early morning, with some people pushing close hoping to touch Ayatollah Khamenei’s coffin as it rode slowly in the back of a truck en route to Imam Ali’s shrine.

Murtada al-Maliki, 27, who travelled overnight from southern Iraq to attend the funeral in Najaf, said the late Iran leader “stood with us against Daesh”, another name for the militant Islamic State group, and kept Israel in check.

Mohammed al-Bayati, 30, said he would have never missed the funeral “of the person who challenged the power of America and Israel”.

There, the call for prayer echoed in the vast courtyards as hundreds of religious scholars in white and black turbans waited for hours to pray over Ayatollah Khamenei’s remains.

Inside the Imam Ali shrine, thousands jostled to get closer to the coffin as it was carried away in the mausoleum’s halls — its last stop in Najaf before being flown to Karbala on Wednesday afternoon via the famous Arabeen road.

After an unprecedented farewell ceremony in Najaf, millions of mourners turned out in Karbala where some observers put the number of people attending the procession and funeral prayers at four million or above.

The presence of Ayatollah Khamenei’s body in these holy cities added a powerful historical resonance to the ceremonies, as the martyrdom of Imam Husain, grandson of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), in the seventh century remains central to Shia identity across the world and annually draws millions of pilgrims to Karbala and Najaf.

Iraqi officials and resistance leaders described the massive turnout as a message of unity and defiance against US-Israeli aggression.

Former Iraqi premier Nouri al-Maliki, head of the State of Law Coalition, said attending Ayatollah Khamenei’s funeral and honouring his legacy was “a duty”.

“Commemorating the legacy of the martyred Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei, the great leader of the Islamic nation, and participating in his funeral is a duty because he was a great leader who remained steadfast, endured, stood against challenges and brought victory to the Iranian nation,” al-Maliki said.

“Everything the Iraqi people do today through their participation in the funeral of the martyred Imam Khamenei and through their other supportive positions, no matter how great or valuable, remains insufficient compared with the stature of this great figure, a figure who shaped a bright future not only for the Iranian nation but for many countries in the region,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2026