‘People here all seek revenge’: Crowds mass for Khamenei’s burial, banners call to kill Trump

Iran was burying its slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday at the country’s holiest shrine, with his son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei still hidden from public view after being disfigured in the strike that killed his father.

The burial in Mashhad in northeast Iran follows a week of mass funeral processions, rallies and mourning ceremonies that have coincided with a renewed burst of conflict with the United States following weeks of truce.

Khamenei’s body was carried by truck slowly through the crammed Mashhad streets towards the gilt dome and minarets of the Shrine of Imam Reza on Thursday, flanked by white-turbaned clerics walking on either side. Black-clad mourners pressed in close behind, waving Iranian flags, photographs of the late Khamenei and red placards with revolutionary slogans.

At least one fighter jet accompanied Khamenei’s coffin on its journey to Mashhad, a reflection of the heightened state of security amid the renewed hostilities.

The burial on Thursday is the culmination of a week of funeral events in both Iran and Iraq that the Islamic Republic’s clerical leaders have been encouraging huge crowds to attend in an effort to vaunt the might and ideological fire of their theocratic state.

It has not been without controversy, however, as the whereabouts of  Mojtaba Khamenei, proclaimed supreme leader by a clerical assembly a week after his father’s death, have remained a mystery to Iranians.

He has not appeared in public since the war began with the February 28 strike that killed Ali Khamenei and, while he has issued written statements, no image, video, or voice recording of him has been issued.

He suffered debilitating injuries in that same strike, his face disfigured and limbs badly wounded.

Senior sources in Tehran have said he is recovering but that he has not yet been well enough to manage public appearances and state security services are also trying to limit his exposure in case of more US attacks.

همه ناراحتی نفوذی های دشمن که دنبال تفرقه و فحش دادن هستند از نیامدن روحانی و خاتمی و ظریف این بود که نتوانستند درست و حسابی فحش دهند و یک مراسم ملی را خراب کنند.کاری که با رییس جمهور و عراقچی کردند. آنها عاشق فحش و تفرقه هستند و نانشان در این کارهاست. pic.twitter.com/CiP1CiChbB

— hadi mohammadi (@m_h_mohammadi) July 6, 2026

While Khamenei’s absence has been a point of contention, the presence of other senior Iranian officials has also caused problems. On Monday, members of the public heckled, insulted, and physically attacked Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, casting them as insufficiently hardline.

‘Kill Trump’ placards appear at burial ceremony

As crowds jostled in Mashhad awaiting Khamenei’s funeral cortege, the crowd chanted slogans demanding revenge on US President Donald Trump for his killing.

“I swear by the blood of the supreme leader, Trump, we will kill you!” they shouted, with women holding up placards reading “Kill Trump.”

Others held a large banner proclaiming “We will kill Trump.”

Similar placards and banners have been displayed throughout the funeral processions, including on Wednesday night when one was hung from a hotel building in Mashhad in preparation for Thursday’s procession.

Mourners also carried the same banner in Tehran on Monday.

The roads leading to the shrine were a sea of black-clad mourners on Thursday, some waving the red flags that symbolize the search for vengeance in Shia Islam, and responding to shouted chants in praise of Khamenei and against Iran’s enemies, including the old revolutionary slogan of “Death to America.”

“People here all seek revenge,” said Mohammad Afsharian, 41, a shop owner.

“I don’t know what’s the story with diplomacy and what’s the policy to continue diplomacy but all the people are carrying red flags in a sign of seeking revenge,” he said.

Aerial footage captured over the Iranian city of Mashhad shows a sea of mourners who came to honor and pay respects to martyred Iranian Leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei.

This is the last day of the colossal funeral procession for the martyred Leader; a procession that is now… pic.twitter.com/BLpviNdu9f

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) July 9, 2026

As the crowds awaited the coffins of Khamenei and his family in the sweltering July heat, hoses pumped water high into the air to spray across the mourners and keep them cool.

Near the mausoleum, many children were present. Many have come with their families, wearing caps in the colors of the Islamic Republic.

Khamenei’s remains, along with those of four family members killed alongside him, have already been paraded through Tehran, the Shi’ite Muslim clerical center of Qom, and the Iraqi shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala.

At each event, huge crowds have thronged the streets to the mournful accompaniment of sung Shiite laments and chanted revolutionary slogans.

Mashhad governor Hassan Hosseini was quoted on state television as saying he “expects 15 million people” to attend Khamenei’s funeral.

Martyrdom holds a central place in Shiite theology, and Khamenei’s death at the hands of foreign enemies — Israel and the US — has played into a religious and political tradition that runs deep through the Islamic Republic.

At the foot of a hotel called Miami, a giant banner showed a caricature of Trump with a bounty on his head.

Another sign showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a message in English: “There will be blood.”

The funeral was originally set to begin on Thursday at 6 a.m. (5:30 a.m. Israel time), but local media later cited organizers as saying it would begin at 2 p.m. because ceremonies in Iraq had run late.

Meanwhile, the eruption of fighting with the US forced the closure of the rail link between Tehran and Mashhad, a city located some 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of the capital, although road transport was being organized for stranded passengers, the state rail company said.

‘We are here for the sake of our martyred leader’

The Shrine of Imam Reze, where Khamenei is to be buried on Thursday evening, is Iran’s most revered place of worship.

Imam Reza is the only one of the 12 Shia imams buried in Iran.

The prayer will be led by Hossein Noori Hamedani, a 101-year-old ayatollah and conservative figure in the Islamic Republic.

Khamenei’s funeral ceremonies included a series of locations that reflect the religious, political and ideological pillars of the Islamic Republic.

His chief of staff, Mohammad Mohammadi-Golpaygani, had previously said on state television that Khamenei himself had wished to be buried in Mashhad.

Several notable figures have been buried in the shrine over the centuries, including several former Iranian shahs, as well as former president Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash in 2024.

The Islamic Republic hopes the ceremony will project strength and unity following the Middle East war, and six months after a crackdown on anti-government protests.

“We are here for the sake of our martyred leader, Seyyed Ali Khamenei, for Iran, or my country, for my beliefs, for Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, for the existence of Iran that ages for millennia and had thousands of years of civilization,” said shop owner Afsharian.

Khamenei will be buried with his infant granddaughter, son-in-law, daughter and Mojtaba Khamenei’s wife Zahra Haddad Adel, who were all killed in the February 28 strikes.