The final stage of the funeral procession for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the slain supreme leader of Iran, was delayed by several hours on Thursday in his hometown, the holy city of Mashhad, after days of public ceremonies that drew hundreds of thousands of mourners in Iran and Iraq.
The delay was because of large crowds on Wednesday in the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala, Iranian state media reported on Thursday, hours after a new round of strikes between the United States and Iran. Iranian officials said that U.S. forces had struck two railway bridges on the line between Tehran, the capital, and Mashhad overnight, disrupting passenger services.
The U.S. military did not say whether it had struck the bridges. But the delay, and the apparent disruption for travelers, cast a shadow over the tightly-organized funeral program, which Iran has sought to present as a show of defiance against the United States.
On Thursday, tens of thousands of mourners gathered before dawn in Mashhad, in northeastern Iran, filling streets, mosques and the sprawling Imam Reza Shrine, where his body will be buried.
Iran’s state broadcaster, IRIB, reported that the funeral procession through the city would begin at 2 p.m. local time (6:30 a.m. Eastern), eight hours later than planned.
The United States and Iran have ratcheted up their hostilities this week, trading strikes for a second consecutive night after President Trump said on Wednesday that he thought their cease-fire was “over.”
Iranian railway officials said that because of the attack on the railway line, buses would take stranded passengers to Mashhad instead. The authorities had previously said they expected over a million people to attend the final day of the funeral.
U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the reported attack.
On Wednesday, a convoy carried Ayatollah Khamenei’s coffin through the streets in Najaf and Karbala, where hundreds of thousands of mourners prayed and weeped for the Shiite Muslim cleric. Iraq is home to the Middle East’s second-largest Shiite Muslim population after Iran.
