Crowds thronged the streets of Najaf on Wednesday as the coffin of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei moved through the city in a procession devoted to Iraq. Iran began six days of public funeral ceremonies for Khamenei on Saturday, including a dedicated day to neighboring Iraq, which has close ties to Tehran. Tehran hopes the marathon ceremonies will project strength and unity after the Middle East war, which started with US-Israeli strikes that killed Khamenei and several relatives on February 28. The procession in Najaf came as the United States and Iran renewed hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz, putting more pressure on a deal to end the war. The US military said it had struck dozens of Iranian targets in response to Tehran's attacks on three ships in Hormuz, with Iran's Revolutionary Guards later saying they had hit US military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait. After a massive procession in Iran's city of Qom, Iraqi officials and senior politicians received the remains of Khamenei on Tuesday night at Najaf international airport in the presence of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and one of the late leader's sons. Iraqi authorities declared Wednesday a public holiday, with procession ceremonies starting at at 6:00 am (0300 GMT) in Najaf. A heavy security deployment was in place as the crowds swelled, with some people pushing close to touch Khamenei's coffin as it rode in the back of a truck en route to the shrine of Imam Ali, the Prophet Mohammed's son-in-law. At the shrine, dozens of clerics stood ready to pray over the coffin before it was carried on to the city of Karbala. Khamenei's final burial will take place on Thursday in his hometown of Mashhad in northeast Iran. His eldest son Mostafa Khamenei was present at the airport on Tuesday, but his successor Mojtaba Khamenei, named supreme leader shortly after his father's killing, has not appeared in public and has only communicated through written statements since his nomination. Iraqi Mohammed al-Bayati, 30, who travelled for hours to Najaf, said it was "an opportunity not to be missed to participate in the funeral of the person who challenged the power of America and Israel". Najaf is the main center of Shiite religious seminaries, and is also home to Ali Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite religious authority. Many senior Shiite clerics have studied, taught or lived there, including Khamenei's predecessor Khomeini. After Najaf, Khamenei's body will be flown to Karbala, about 60 kilometers north, for another procession. In Karbala, one banner read "we bid you farewell" and another displayed Khamenei's photo with the caption, "the one who humiliated America". In both cities, hundreds of volunteer-run stalls serving food and drinks to mourners lined the procession routes. Iranian state media quoted Esmail Qaani, head of the Guards' Quds Force, as saying: "The extensive planning for this historical event by the Iraqi government and people show the depth of the spiritual bond between the two great nations of Iraq and Iran to the whole world."
