The body of the martyred Imam arrived in Karbala for its final funeral procession in Iraq late on Wednesday.
Sheikh Abdul Mahdi Al-Karbalayi, the representative of the top Shai cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, led the funeral prayer over the body of the late Leader at the holy shrine of Imam Hussein (AS).
Early estimates from the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) put the number of mourners in Karbala at over four million, with crowds spilling into the streets long before the formal ceremony began.
The procession in Karbala followed a historic farewell ceremony in Najaf, where an estimated 3.8 million mourners packed the streets and courtyards of the shrine of Imam Ali (peace be upon him), the first Shia Imam.
In Najaf, the scale of the turnout was described as unprecedented, as many mourners had traveled overnight from across Iraq and beyond.
The body of the late Leader, accompanied by the remains of his family members who were assassinated alongside him, was transported from Najaf to Karbala on Wednesday afternoon via the famous Arbaeen road.
Iraqi authorities had declared a public holiday to allow for the massive turnout.
The funeral in Iraq followed large-scale farewell ceremonies in Tehran and Qom, where millions of Iranians paid their final respects to the martyred Leader. Following the ceremonies in Najaf and Karbala, Ayatollah Khamenei’s body will return to Iran for the final funeral procession and burial at the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS) in Mashhad.
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei was martyred in a joint US-Israeli strike on Tehran on February 28, 2026, at the start of a 40-day war of aggression against Iran. His martyrdom sparked widespread mourning across Iran and among supporters of the Resistance in the region, with mourners carrying red flags as a symbol of their demand for justice and retribution.
