Shafaq News- Najaf (Updated at 7:13)
Funeral processions for Iran's late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, began in the Iraqi city of Najaf on Wednesday morning, drawing senior Iraqi officials and citizens amid high security and organizational measures.
The moment the coffins of the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and his family members enter the holy shrine of Imam Ali in the Iraqi city of Najaf.Follow: https://t.co/GKZwI4ehqL pic.twitter.com/V5r989YP1f
— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) July 8, 2026
The Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi received on Tuesday evening the bodies of Khamenei and members of his family at Najaf International Airport. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, FM Abbass Araghchi, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani, and senior Iranian officials had also arrived to take part in the ceremonies. President Masoud Pezeshkian left Iraq and returned to Iran after the US airstrikes that targeted areas in southern Iran, according to Iranian state television.
A wide range of Iraqi political, religious, tribal, and community figures also attended the reception ceremony, including leaders of the Iran-aligned Coordination Framework, the largely parliamentary bloc that governs Iraq.
Sayyid Muhammad Taqi al-Hakim, an instructor at the religious seminary in Najaf, is scheduled to lead the funeral prayer in the city. Sheikh Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalai, the representative of the top Shia religious authority Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is to lead the prayer at the shrine of Imam Hussein bin Ali after the body reaches Karbala.
