Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei laid to rest in Mashhad

Mourners performed funeral prayers on Thursday on the final day of ceremonies for Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The prayers were led by his son Mostafa Khamenei but the country’s new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, didn’t attend.

Over six days of mourning, millions of people turned out across Iran and neighbouring Iraq to pay their respects to the former leader. Thousands of people dressed in black flooded the city of Mashhad. It’s home to the Imam Reza shrine, Iran’s holiest Shia Muslim site and where Khamenei was laid to rest.

Khamenei was killed in February during the first moments of the war between Iran, the United States and Israel.

The burial came as the United States launched new airstrikes against Iran early on Thursday, despite a ceasefire agreed last month.

Tehran responded by targeting US-allied Gulf nations.

The Imam Reza shrine has hosted funeral and burial of many prominent Iranians including former President Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash in 2024. But Khamenei is only the second ruler of Iran to be laid to rest in Mashhad in nearly 280 years.

In 1747, King Nader Shah was buried in the city after he was assassinated after nearly 11 years in power that were mostly spent fighting domestic rebels and neighbouring nations, which heavily deteriorated economic situation of the country. He was buried some 900 meters northwest of the shrine of Imam Reza.