Funeral processions for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei drew large crowds to Najaf and Karbala on July 8, 2026, as his coffin passed through two cities of major religious importance to Shiite Muslims.
The Associated Press reported that thousands attended the ceremonies, while Middle East Eye put the turnout in the tens of thousands. In Najaf, mourners carrying portraits of Khamenei received the coffin and the senior officials accompanying it, including Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. The casket was covered with the flag of the Islamic Republic and enclosed in glass.
An official ceremony had taken place at Najaf International Airport on the previous evening. On Wednesday morning, the procession moved through Najaf and entered the Shrine of Imam Ali, where Muhammad Taqi al-Hakim, a senior scholar at the city’s seminary, conducted funeral prayers. Shiite clerics joined other mourners inside the shrine.
Crowd pressure repeatedly complicated the procession. According to the AP, people pushed toward the coffin, with some reaching or throwing themselves onto it. Attendants asked pallbearers to hold it closer to the ground because of concern that they could lose control. Some participants engaged in self-flagellation, and mourners displayed Iranian flags alongside red and black banners associated with mourning and revenge.
Jaafar Jawad, who attended the funeral, described the coffin’s arrival in Najaf as a great honor and said Iraqis would remain loyal to Khamenei. His comments reflected the devotion expressed by supporters at the ceremony rather than an official Iraqi government position.
Procession continues to Karbala
The body was subsequently taken to Karbala, where thousands assembled in and around the shrine in desert heat. Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalaei, identified by the AP as a representative of Iraq’s leading Shiite religious authority, led prayers there. Crowds again surged around the coffin during its passage between two shrines, nearly causing it to fall several times. Organizers inside the Imam al-Abbas Mosque eventually lowered it to limit the pressure from people seeking blessings or hoping to help carry it.
The Iraqi rites formed part of funeral ceremonies that had begun several days earlier in Tehran. Authorities there had closed streets and airspace as crowds commemorated Khamenei, who had led Iran for decades. The AP reported that the 86-year-old was killed in late February during broad US and Israeli strikes on Iran, along with several other senior Iranian leaders.
The ceremonies unfolded while the wider conflict remained unsettled. The AP said talks between Washington and Tehran appeared paused until after the burial, while attacks around the Persian Gulf on July 7 and 8 threatened an interim arrangement intended to halt the monthslong war. The outlet reported that the US attacked Iran after accusing Tehran of striking three ships in the Strait of Hormuz, followed by Iranian retaliatory attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain.
Middle East Eye reported that Khamenei’s remains later returned to Iran, with burial planned in Mashhad on July 9. Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, had not appeared during the multiday ceremonies, according to the AP.
