Crowds of mourners dressed in black flooded Tehran Monday for the funeral procession of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with throngs calling for the death of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Khamenei's flag-draped coffin, and those of members of his family killed on Feb. 28 in an airstrike at the start of the war launched by Israel and the U.S., sat on board a truck decorated to resemble the ornamental grating that surrounds the shrine of an imam.
The massive turnout, encouraged by Iran's theocracy as a sign of strength, came as it negotiates with the U.S. over a permanent end to the war that killed the 86-year-old cleric.
Helicopter images aired on Iranian state television showed a massive crowd stretching from Tehran’s Azadi, or Freedom, Square for kilometers (miles) down a multilane street of the same name.
The crowd appeared to be larger than the one that turned out for the 2020 procession for the late Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Solemani, which drew over 1 million people.
