Najaf concludes Khamenei's funeral before Karbala procession

Shafaq News- Najaf (Updated at 15:12)

Funeral prayers were held on Wednesday at the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf for Iran's late Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, marking the conclusion of the funeral ceremonies in the Iraqi city before his body is transferred to Karbala.

The prayers were led by seminary scholar Mohammad Taqi Al-Hakim and attended by senior officials, religious figures, and large crowds.

Preparations are now underway to transport Khamenei's body to Karbala, where a public funeral procession is scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m. local time from the shrines of Imam Hussein and al-Abbas. The procession will reunite his body with those of family members killed in the US strikes in late February.

Massive crowds disrupted the funeral procession, overwhelming crowd-control measures and complicating efforts to move his coffin through the Imam Ali Shrine, Shafaq News correspondent reported. Despite extensive security and logistical preparations, large numbers of mourners sought to carry the coffin or walk alongside it, causing repeated congestion.

Staff at the Imam Ali Shrine struggled to move the coffin steadily through the crowds, while organizers were forced to close the shrine's gates after it was brought inside to control the flow of mourners.

Access to the shrine's inner sanctum was ultimately limited to clerics, seminary students and shrine staff. As the coffin was carried around the tomb of Imam Ali and taken back into the courtyard for funeral prayers, pallbearers were seen struggling to maintain their balance amid the crush of mourners, the correspondent added.

The funeral procession reached Najaf earlier today under tight security, while the organizing committee estimated total attendance at more than two million people. Around 4,300 Iraqi and foreign journalists were accredited to cover the event.