The coffin of Iran's slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei landed in Mashhad on Thursday ahead of his burial, though the ceremony has been pushed back after huge crowds thronged the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala a day earlier, delaying the final leg of his six-day funeral procession.
Footage showed the Mahan Air flight carrying Khamenei's body taxiing at the airport after landing in his home city.
???????? Khamenei's body is arriving in his hometown Mashhad for burial, as U.S. strikes hit Iranian air defenses outside.
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) July 9, 2026
The six-day funeral procession crossed Tehran, Qom, Najaf, and Karbala before returning to Iran for the final burial at the Imam Reza Shrine, Iran's most sacred…
Khamenei was transferred to Mashhad from Iraq, where ceremonies had been held at the holy shrines in Najaf and Karbala, drawing millions of mourners.
Iranian state television reported that the burial ceremony, originally expected on Thursday morning in Mashhad, had been delayed because of the scale of the crowds that gathered in Najaf and Karbala on Wednesday.
The funeral is now scheduled to take place at 2:30 p.m. local time (11:00 GMT), according to the reports.
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Mashhad holds deep personal and religious significance for Khamenei, who was born in the city in 1939 and is being laid to rest at the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia Imam and one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam.
The burial marks the culmination of a funeral procession that began on July 4 and has moved through Tehran, Qom, Najaf and Karbala over six days, drawing what officials have said could be tens of millions of mourners in total.
Khamenei, who led Iran for 36 years, was killed alongside several family members in a joint US-Israeli air strike on his compound on February 28.
His burial, initially planned for March, was repeatedly postponed as the conflict continued, with Iranian authorities citing security concerns and the logistical challenges of organising a ceremony of this scale.
The delay in Mashhad comes even as fighting between Iran and the US shows no signs of abating, with the funeral proceeding against the backdrop of fresh strikes reported across southern Iran this week.
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