Cairo [Egypt], July 9: Funeral ceremonies for Iran's late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have begun in the Iraqi city of Najaf, which is sacred to Shia Muslims.
A funeral procession set off early on Wednesday, with local reports suggesting that hundreds of thousands of people turned out. Among those taking part in the procession were Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and senior religious and political leaders from Iraq. Iraq's Prime Minister Ali al-Saidi had received Khamenei's body the previous evening.
The so-called Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an alliance of predominantly Shia militias in Iraq loyal to Iran, reported that more than 2 million people had turned out for the funeral procession in Najaf. The majority of Iraqis are Shia. Their heartland lies around their holy sites of Najaf and Karbala, south of the capital, Baghdad. Iraq and Iran are today linked by close religious, political, and economic ties, and Tehran wields considerable influence in Iraq. Khamenei is due to be buried on Thursday in his hometown of Mashhad after days of processions across Iran and Iraq.
Source: Qatar Tribune