- Millions dressed in black mourn late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Qom
- Funeral prayers held at Jamkaran Mosque with chants against US and Israel
- Procession to Fatima Masumeh mausoleum showed controlled crowds unlike 1989
Dressed in black, millions of people took to the streets of Qom -- an Iranian holy city that houses Shia Islam's most influential seminaries and shrines-- on the fourth day of marathon funeral proceedings for late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The remains of the cleric, who was killed in late February on the first day of the US-Israeli war against Iran, have been kept at Qom's Jamkaran Mosque.
A prayer service was held inside the mosque by Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, a 93-year-old ayatollah and influential conservative Shia figure in the Islamic republic. The massive crowd at the service chanted in unison, "death to America" and "death to Israel", a rallying cry frequently heard at official gatherings in Iran.
Sea Of Red And Black
Aerial footage broadcast by state television showed mourners carrying red flags flowing through the streets of Qom in streams that gradually turned into rivers and then a larger sea with enough collective force that individuals seemed to dissolve into movement itself.
Other videos from the country showed mourners, including clerics wearing turbans, paying their respects at the coffins of Khamenei and four relatives killed alongside him, including a granddaughter reportedly only 14 months old.
A procession then followed with a truck carrying the bodies towards the mausoleum of Fatima Masumeh, the sister of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia imam, a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed.
Controlled Crowd
The procession was a contrast with the funeral for Iran's previous supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989, which devolved into chaos.
According to official estimates at the time, over 10 million people attended Khomeini's funeral -- which was around a sixth of Iran's population-- marking it as a Guinness World Record for the largest proportion of a country to attend a funeral. Mourners stormed the vehicle carrying Khomeini's body
When mourners stormed the vehicle carrying Ali Khamenei's predecessor's body, leading to a stampede that killed at least eight people and injured more than 10,000.
In contrast, the crowd during Khamenei's funeral procession has been controlled, with authorities keen to project an image of strength and unity following the war and after massive, bloody anti-government protests across Iran six months ago.
The previous day, a lengthy funeral procession in Tehran also drew huge crowds, with Iranians flooding the streets of the capital in an event comparable to Khomeini's funeral.
Mojtaba's No Show
But so far in the ceremonies, there has been no sign of Khamenei's successor and son Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since his appointment in early March.
Iranian officials have said he was wounded in the airstrike that killed his father, and it remains unknown if he will appear for the ceremonies.
Another funeral procession is scheduled to be held on Wednesday in neighbouring Iraq, which is home to a large Shia community.
The final burial of Khamenei, who ruled Iran for over three decades until his death at the age of 86, will take place on Thursday in his hometown of Mashhad, a holy city in the north-east of the country.
