RABAT, July 8. /TASS/. Around 2.5 million people have taken to the streets of Iraq’s Najaf, the sacred city for Shia Muslims, during a mourning procession for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Al-Mayadeen TV channel reported.
According to it, "2.5 million mourners have taken part in a funeral procession for deceased Iranian leader Ali Khamenei in the city of Najaf."
At the moment, the mourning events in Najaf have come to an end, and preparations are underway to transport Khamenei’s body to Karbala, another city in Iraq, which is holy for Shia Muslims. The farewell ceremony for the late Iranian leader will begin there at 4:00 p.m. local time (1:00 p.m. GMT).
According to the committee for religious affairs in the province of Karbala, millions of pilgrims are expected to attend the mourning ceremony, with representatives from various Iraqi provinces, and delegations of a lot of Arab countries, regional and international organizations, who could not participate in the farewell ceremony for Khamenei in Iran, taking part in the event.
The funeral ceremony for Ali Khamenei, who was killed on February 28, began in Tehran on July 3. For several days, the Iranian supreme leader’s body was lying in state at the Grand Mosalla of Tehran, the capital’s largest religious and public complex, where anyone could pay their respects to the departed leader. On July 6, a mourning procession was held in Tehran, after which the body was brought to Iran’s main religious center, the city of Qom. On July 8, the coffin with Khamenei’s body will be in Iraq. The burial is scheduled for July 9 in Khamenei’s hometown of Mashhad in Iran.