Najaf mobilizes for Khamenei funeral procession

Shafaq News- Najaf

Najaf is deploying more than 25,000 security personnel, 100 ambulances, and a thousand medical staff as the southern Iraqi city prepares to host the Iraqi leg of the funeral procession for Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, with the public march scheduled to begin at 6:00 a.m. Wednesday, according to multiple officials who spoke to Shafaq News.

Iraqi and Iranian flags line the main streets, particularly the Najaf-Kufa road, while images of Khamenei cover public squares, intersections, and billboard screens, a scene residents describe as unprecedented. Around 100 Husseini processions, volunteer groups providing food, water, and services to religious pilgrims, will be stationed along the route, according to Haidar Kaboun, director of the Rituals and Mass Pilgrimages Department.

The procession will set out from al-Sadr Teaching Hospital overpass toward the Shrine of Imam Ali bin Abi Taleb, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam. Najaf Governor Youssef Kanawi said the city will hold two separate programs: an official ceremony for state leaders, ministers, and parliamentarians, and a public procession open to the wider community. Official reception ceremonies are scheduled at Najaf International Airport on Tuesday evening.

Najaf International Airport will suspend all commercial flight operations from 3:00 p.m. local time on July 6 until 4:00 a.m. on July 9, the airport administration announced, citing operational reasons, the airport administration announced.

At least seven provinces, Baghdad, Najaf, Babil, Dhi Qar, Basra, Wasit, and Maysan, declared Wednesday an official holiday. Babil Provincial Council allocated 400 vehicles to transport mourners to Najaf and Karbala, council chairman Asaad al-Muslimawi said. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi's office also instructed government ministries to assign buses for participants, according to an informed source.

Khamenei's body is to be flown from the Iranian city of Qom to Najaf International Airport, taken to the Imam Ali Shrine for farewell rites, then moved to Karbala —home to the shrines of Imam Hussein bin Ali and his brother al-Abbas— before returning to Iran for burial at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad on July 9. Official funeral ceremonies began in Tehran on Friday and are scheduled to continue for about a week.

Khamenei, who led Iran for nearly four decades, was killed on February 28 during US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

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