Iran has buried Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the nation’s holiest Shiite shrine, more than four months after a U.S.-Israeli strike killed him at his Tehran compound.
State media reported early Friday that Khamenei was buried in his birthplace, Mashhad, at the Shrine of Imam Reza, a sprawling religious complex crowned by a large golden dome and flanked by gilded minarets in the city center.
The burial itself was private, but it followed a week of public mourning and processions that drew crowds exceeding 15 million people, with Iranian estimates suggesting the total may have been more than double that figure.
One notable absence from the funeral events was Khamenei’s son and chosen successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since the Feb. 28 attack that killed his father and marked the start of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Khamenei’s funeral was initially scheduled for March but was delayed as Iran became embroiled in war.
Delegations from Iran’s regional allies, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad from Gaza, Hezbollah from Lebanon and the Houthis from Yemen, attended. A larger crowd turned out at the mosque the next day.
On Monday, at least 12 million people filled the streets of the capital as the coffin was driven slowly on the back of a truck along a 10-kilometer (six-mile) route to Azadi Square. The vast western Tehran plaza has served as the setting for the Islamic Republic’s largest gatherings since the 1979 revolution.
