TEHRAN, Iran — A truck carrying the coffin of Iran’s slain supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, crawled through Tehran’s thronged streets to chants of “death to America” and “death to Israel” on Monday.
Some in the huge crowds, which were kept from getting too close to the convoy by large numbers of Iranian military and police, openly wept, while others called for revenge against President Donald Trump.
A Reuters photograph showed at least one effigy of Trump being hanged. Red, white and green Islamic Republic flags and red banners with lettering calling for revenge lined the route.
Alongside Khamenei, who was 86, lay coffins of family members also killed in the airstrike on Feb. 28 that brought an end to Khamenei’s nearly four-decade rule, when the U.S. and Israel launched an attack triggering the war with Iran.
Latticework typical to the shrine of an imam, or religious leader, festooned the side of the truck carrying the coffins.
Photographs of Khamenei hung throughout the Iranian capital. In some he is seen with his son Mojtaba Khamenei, who has been named supreme leader but has not appeared in public or issued an audio statement since the war began.
Another photo shows Khamenei with the superimposed image of a green-eyed little girl, his 14-month-old granddaughter, Zahra Golpayegani, who was also killed in the Feb. 28 airstrike.
With talks between Washington and Tehran on pause amid the funeral events, a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told NBC News at the procession that the war would not be “over for us” until Khamenei’s death was avenged. It is rare for members of the Revolutionary Guard to speak to journalists, with reporters able to move freely through the crowd Monday.
Trump said Monday that Iran’s military has been destroyed. “Iran, we’re doing actually equally as well, we’re just not getting the kind of coverage that we should, but we have eviscerated them militarily, and the bottom line is our country is strong,” he said in the Oval Office.
Misted water was sprayed on the crowds to help them cool off in the scorching summer temperatures.
The funeral procession’s original route was modified because the crowds were too large and it would have taken hours to complete, according to organizers.
Meanwhile, many roads in downtown Tehran were blocked as mourners continued to arrive by car, motorcycle and public transportation trying to reach the area for a final glimpse of the country’s leader.
After having lain in state in Tehran’s Grand Mosalla for three days and then processing through the capital Monday, Khamenei’s coffin is scheduled to go to the Iranian holy city of Qom and then to Iraq to visit Shiite holy sites.
Authorities shut down streets and airspace for the nationwide mourning, which will end Thursday when Khamenei is buried at the Imam Reza shrine in his hometown, Mashhad.
The government had expected large crowds and was eager to use the display to demonstrate its continued control after it survived months of attacks from the U.S. and Iran and after huge protests that were met by a deadly crackdown rocked the country this year.
On Sunday, tens of thousands of men and women gathered in separate sections to mourn Khamenei’s death. Three of his sons were recorded crying in the front row close to the coffins.
Missing from the events is Khamenei’s successor, son Mojtaba, 56, as questions swirl over his condition. He is not expected to attend his father’s funeral, an Iranian official and a Middle Eastern diplomat told NBC News over the weekend.
He was severely injured in the strike that killed his father at the start of the war, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, with burns to his face and body and wounds that have required several operations on one of his legs.
A senior Iranian official said his injuries were “not very serious.”
As the funeral proceedings continue, negotiations between the U.S. and Iran toward a lasting peace deal that would also fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz were expected to be on hold until after Khamenei’s burial.
