Baghdad, Jul 8 (EFE).- Around four million people gathered on Wednesday in the holy Shiite city of Karbala, Iraq, to pay their final respects to Iran’s late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His body was then transported back to Iran for burial.
According to the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and the official Iraqi news agency, INA, around four million people gathered, moving from the holy city of Najaf, where the funeral procession began, toward Karbala, where Imam Hussein, the Prophet’s grandson, was killed in 680 AD.
The body of the ayatollah entered the designated procession route on Abu Mahdi Street in Karbala to conclude the funeral rites at the shrines of Imam Hussein bin Ali and Al-Abbas, two of the holiest sites in Shi’ism.
Videos released by the Popular Mobilization Forces showed large crowds pushing and forcing their way through to get closer to the coffin.
The bodies of Khamenei and several members of his family arrived on Tuesday at Najaf International Airport in an official ceremony presided over by Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi.
Once the rites at both shrines in Karbala are concluded, the body will return via the same route to Najaf and from there to Iran.
Khamenei, who was assassinated on the first day of the war initiated by the United States and Israel on Feb. 28, will finally be buried on Thursday in his hometown of Mashhad, the country’s most sacred city, as it houses the mausoleum of Imam Reza, the eighth Imam of Shi’ism.EFE
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