Iranians say farewell to Khamenei with tears, prayers and chants of 'revenge'

Iranians gathered in Tehran on Saturday (July 4) to mourn the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with tears, prayers and calls for "revenge."

Crowds thronged a vast prayer complex as the week-long funeral ceremonies of Khamenei began with the national anthem, religious eulogies and readings from the Koran.

The vast courtyard of the complex, the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla, was filled with mourners, many waving Iranian flags and carrying photographs of the slain leader.

In television footage, mourners were also heard chanting: "Revenge, revenge" for Khamenei.

Water misted from rooftops to cool mourners in the summer heat. Khamenei’s coffin will remain in the Mosalla until Sunday evening.

His body was expected to be taken to Qom, Najaf and Kerbala, the great Shi'ite centres of Iran and Iraq, before being laid to rest on Thursday in Mashhad, home to the country's holiest pilgrim shrine.

Iran is staging mass funeral processions for Khamenei – whose 37-year reign was brought to an end in February by the first air strike of the war launched by the U.S. and Israel – in a show of public devotion to the Islamic Republic's theocratic state and revolutionary zeal.

-Lisa Giles-Keddie, Writing: Parisa Hafezi, Ahmed Elimam, Eman Abouhassira, Editing: Lisa Giles-Keddie/Reuters