Mourners dressed in black lined streets in Tehran at a funeral on Saturday for top military commanders, nuclear scientists and some of the civilians killed during Iran’s 12-day war with Israel.
The caskets of Guard’s chief General Hossein Salami, the head of the Guard’s ballistic missile program, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh and others were driven on trucks along the capital’s Azadi Street as people in the crowds chanted: ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel.’
Others were seen trampling the flags of Israel and the US and setting them alight.
Salami and Hajizadeh were both killed on the first day of the war, June 13, as Israel launched a war it said meant to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, specifically targeting military commanders, scientists and nuclear facilities.
State media reported more than one million people turned out for the funeral procession, with images showing a dense crowd packing the main Tehran thoroughfare.
Images displayed mock-ups of Iranian ballistic missiles as well as coffins draped in Iranian flags and bearing portraits of the deceased commanders in uniform near Enghelab (Revolution) Square in central Tehran, where the march began.
There was no immediate sign of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameni, in the state broadcast of the funeral.
Khamenei, who has not made a public appearance since before the outbreak of the war, has in past funerals held prayers for fallen commanders over their caskets before the open ceremonies, later aired on state television.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was on hand, and state television reported that General Esmail Qaani, who heads the foreign wing of the Revolutionary Guard, the Quds Force, and General Ali Shamkhani were also among the mourners.
Shamkhani, an adviser to Khamenei who was wounded in the first round of Israel’s attack and hospitalized, was shown in a civilian suit leaning on a cane in an image distributed on state television’s Telegram channel.
Over 12 days before a ceasefire was declared on Tuesday, Israel claimed it killed around 30 Iranian commanders and 11 nuclear scientists, while hitting eight nuclear-related facilities and more than 720 military infrastructure sites.
Iran fired more than 550 ballistic missiles at Israel, most of which were intercepted, but those that got through caused damage in many areas and killed 28 people.
Saturday’s ceremonies were the first public funerals for top commanders since the ceasefire, and Iranian state television reported that they were for 60 people in total, including four women and four children.
Authorities closed government offices to allow public servants to attend the ceremonies.
State media published images of an open grave plot at Tehran’s sprawling Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery where army chief of staff, General Mohammad Bagheri, who was killed on the first day of the war, was to be buried beside his brother, a Guards commander killed during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.
Many of the others were to be buried in their hometowns.
Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.
But Israel views it as an existential threat and said its military campaign was necessary to prevent Iran from building an atomic weapon.
Khamenei’s last public appearance was June 11, two days before hostilities with Israel broke out, when he met with Iranian parliamentarians.
On Thursday, however, he released a pre-recorded video, in his first message since the end of the war, filled with warnings and threats directed toward the US and Israel, the Islamic Republic’s longtime adversaries.
The US had carried out strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites last weekend, joining its ally Israel’s bombardments of Iran’s nuclear programme in the 12-day conflict.
Both Israel and Iran claimed victory in the war that ended with a ceasefire, with Iranian leader Khamenei downplaying the US strikes as having done ‘nothing significant’.
In a tirade on his Truth Social platform, Trump blasted Tehran Friday for claiming to have won the war.
He also claimed to have known ‘EXACTLY where he (Khamenei) was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces… terminate his life’.
‘I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, ‘THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!” the US leader said.
Trump added he had been working in recent days on the possible removal of sanctions against Iran, one of Tehran’s main demands.
‘But no, instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more,’ Trump said.
Hitting back at Trump Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the Republican president’s comments on Khamenei.
‘If President Trump is genuine about wanting a deal, he should put aside the disrespectful and unacceptable tone towards Iran’s Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei,’ Araghchi posted on social media platform X.
‘The Great and Powerful Iranian People, who showed the world that the Israeli regime had NO CHOICE but to RUN to ‘Daddy’ to avoid being flattened by our Missiles, do not take kindly to Threats and Insults.’
The Israeli strikes on Iran killed at least 627 civilians, Tehran’s health ministry said. Iran’s attacks on Israel killed 28 people, according to Israeli figures.
During his first term in office, Trump pulled out in 2018 of a landmark nuclear deal – negotiated by former US president Barack Obama.
The deal that Trump had abandoned aimed to make it practically impossible for Iran to build an atomic bomb.
Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is only for civilian purposes, stepped up its activities after Trump withdrew from the agreement.
After the US strikes, Trump said negotiations for a new deal were set to begin next week.
But Tehran denied a resumption, and leader Khamenei said Trump had ‘exaggerated events in unusual ways’, rejecting US claims Iran’s nuclear programme had been set back by decades.
Israel had claimed it had ‘thwarted Iran’s nuclear project’ during the 12-day war.
But its foreign minister reiterated Friday the world was obliged to stop Tehran from developing an atomic bomb.
‘The international community now has an obligation to prevent, through any effective means, the world’s most extreme regime from obtaining the most dangerous weapon,’ Gideon Saar wrote on X.