Iran’s longest-serving Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was flown back to Iran from Iraq on Thursday, with a fighter jet escorting the aircraft carrying his coffin.
Khamenei’s burial is scheduled later in the day in his hometown of Mashhad after a week of funeral ceremonies and mourning processions across Iran and Iraq.
His coffin arrived from Iraq, where funeral rites were held in the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. Footage released by Reuters and other news agencies showed a fighter jet accompanying the aircraft carrying Khamenei’s remains as it crossed into Iranian airspace.
Iranian fighter jets escorted the plane carrying the late leader’s body as it departed Najaf for Mashhad. pic.twitter.com/iTuxzINDWa pic.twitter.com/xqC5OAwGYW
— IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) (@iribnews_irib) July 9, 2026
Large crowds gathered in Mashhad ahead of the burial, with mourners lining the streets carrying Iranian flags and portraits of the late Supreme Leader. Visuals from the city showed the coffin being taken in a procession towards the revered Shrine of Imam Reza, where Khamenei is set to be laid to rest.
According to Iranian officials, Khamenei will be buried alongside his infant granddaughter, daughter, son-in-law and Zahra Haddad Adel, the wife of his son Mojtaba Khamenei, all of whom were killed in the February 28 strikes.
The burial prayers are expected to be led by 101-year-old Ayatollah Hossein Noori Hamedani, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.
Khamenei’s chief of staff, Mohammad Mohammadi-Golpaygani, earlier said the late leader had personally expressed his wish to be buried in Mashhad, one of Shia Islam’s holiest cities.
Khamenei served as Iran’s second Supreme Leader from 1989 until his death on February 28, when he was killed during Operation Epic Fury, a US military operation carried out in coordination with Israel that targeted senior Iranian leaders.
His death dramatically escalated regional tensions, triggering a wider military confrontation between Iran and the US-Israel alliance, with both sides exchanging missile and drone strikes across the Middle East.
The arrival of Khamenei’s coffin in Mashhad marks the final leg of an extensive week-long farewell that included funeral processions in Tehran, the clerical city of Qom, and the Iraqi shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala.
The burial comes as tensions between Iran and the United States remain elevated. Iran has said it resumed attacks targeting US military bases in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar following American strikes on Iranian territory, raising fresh concerns over the security of the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.