Iran mourners defiant as Khamenei buried: ‘only revenge can soothe the pain’
Mourners in Mashhad chant revenge slogans as Iran-US exchanges threaten ceasefire deal
Iran on Friday laid to rest its former supreme leader Ali Khamenei over four months after his killing in an air strike, as two days of US and Iranian attacks raised fears of a return to all-out war.
Khamenei’s flag-covered coffin was carried aloft into the shrine of Imam Reza in his home city of Mashhad in eastern Iran as a sea of people waited outside and listened to prayers, with no sign of a public appearance by his son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei.
The “body of the martyred leader of the Islamic Revolution was buried in the memorial hall of the shrine of Imam Reza,” state broadcaster IRIB reported.
The burial came after a second day of tit-for-tat attacks by Washington and Tehran’s forces, with Iranian officials reporting that US strikes killed 17 people and state media saying one targeted a railway line between Tehran and Mashhad.
The Islamic republic said it had resumed attacks targeting US assets in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar, while sirens blared in Jordan – another American ally – where the military said it had intercepted eight missiles launched from Iran.
Khamenei was killed alongside close family members on the first day of the US-Israeli war against Iran on February 28.