Huge crowds thronged the streets of Najaf and packed the courtyards of its majestic shrine as they mourned late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during his funeral procession in Iraq Wednesday. Iran began six days of public funeral ceremonies for Khamenei on Saturday, including a dedicated day in neighbouring Iraq – a Shia powerhouse with close ties to Tehran and home to the faith's most sacred shrines. The Islamic Republic hopes the marathon ceremonies will show strength and unity after the Middle East war, which started with US-Israeli air strikes that killed Khamenei and several of his relatives – including his 14-month-old granddaughter – on February 28. Read more'His resilience, his words, his character': Mourners grieve late supreme leader Khamenei Mohammed al-Bayati, 30, said he would have never missed the funeral "of the person who challenged the power of America and Israel". Murtada al-Maliki, 27, who travelled overnight from southern Iraq to attend the funeral in Najaf, said Khamenei "stood with us against Daesh", another name for the Sunni Islamic State group, "and kept Israel in check". After a massive procession in Iran's holy city of Qom, Khamenei's body was brought Tuesday night to Iraq where authorities declared Wednesday a public holiday. Since the early morning, despite the scorching heat, vast crowds filled the streets of Najaf, with some people pushing close hoping to touch Khamenei's coffin as it rode slowly in the back of a truck en route to the shrine of Imam Ali – the Prophet Mohammed's son-in-law and the first Shia Imam. There, the call for prayer echoed in the vast courtyards as hundreds of clerics in white and black turbans waited for hours to pray over Khamenei's remains. Inside the shrine, thousands jostled to get closer to the coffin as it was carried away in the mausoleum's halls – its last stop in Najaf before being flown to the other holy city of Karbala. Khamenei's funeral will conclude with his burial on Thursday in his hometown of Mashhad in northeast Iran. Shrines The remains of Khamenei's relatives who were killed with him, including his granddaughter, were quietly brought early Wednesday to the shrines of Najaf and Karbala. Najaf is the main centre of Shia religious seminaries, and is also home to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's top Shia religious authority.