ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Friday vowed “punishment for the perpetrators” and vengeance for “the martyrs” - including slain Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei (1939 - 2026), who was laid to rest on the same day after a multi-day funeral procession between Iran and Iraq that Tehran state media saw “tens of millions” of participants.
"Seeking vengeance for the martyrs and punishing the perpetrators, commanders, and supporters of this crime is a definitive and legitimate demand," said Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi in a message released in the wake of Khamenei's burial.
He added that "this demand will not fade from the historical memory of the Muslim nation and the Resistance Front until full justice is achieved and an appropriate response is delivered against the criminals."
Khamenei was laid to rest in Iran's northern holy city of Mashhad on Friday morning, at the shrine of the eighth Shia Imam, Ali ibn Musa al-Ridha - commonly referred to in Iran as Imam Reza.
The rites came a week after the bodies of the late supreme leader and several others killed alongside him in a US-Israeli strike on Tehran in late February were transferred to a mega mosque in the Iranian capital last Friday, kicking off a multi-day funeral ceremony across Tehran and the shrine cities of Qom and Mashhad in Iran, as well as the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq.
Iran's English-language broadcaster Press TV described the funeral ceremonies as "the largest procession the world has ever witnessed," adding that "official estimates, compiled from multiple independent field and government sources, confirm that between 41 and 43 million people took part in the historic events."
In Iraq, Khamenei's body was transferred to the southern Najaf province on Tuesday evening, where rites were performed the next day at the shrine of the first Shia Imam, Ali ibn Abi Talib. It was then taken to the southern Karbala province later on Wednesday for further rites at the shrine of the third Shia Imam, Hussein ibn Ali, and his brother Abbas, before being returned to Mashhad on Thursday.
Ihsan al-Awadi, bureau chief for Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and head of the committee tasked with organizing Khamenei's funeral processions in Iraq, said in a statement that "preliminary unofficial statistics indicate that more than 10 million mourners" participated in the late Iranian leader's funeral in Iraq.
Awwadi further lauded security forces for ensuring the event unfolded “in an orderly manner without any security breaches.”
Khamenei was killed on February 28 on the first day of the joint US-Israeli aerial campaign launched against Iran along with several of the country's top leaders and commanders.
While several prior dates had been set for the funeral, the six-week Iran war and ensuing intermittent tit-for-tat military escalations delayed the ceremony.
