TEHRAN — Massive crowds showed up Saturday for the official start of the funeral of Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran’s capital, the beginning of a weeklong mourning period that is meant to project the strength and resilience of the Islamic Republic.Limited time: Save 25% on NBC News subscriptionGet exclusive reporting, live Q&As and ad-free reading.Draped in the Iranian flag and topped with his black turban, the 86-year-old’s coffin was enclosed within a glass case at the Grand Mosalla, a vast mosque and prayer complex in central Tehran.It was placed alongside the four coffins of his family members, killed alongside him in the opening salvo of the war with the U.S.
and Israel four months ago.Dressed in black, the crowds of mourners started gathering on the streets in the dark and early hours of Saturday morning, after calls from the country’s leaders for them to show up en masse.Hours later, after the sun rose, their numbers had swelled to tens of thousands.A sea of people was visible inside the Grand Mosalla’s vast courtyard, in front of a colossal banner depicting Khamenei, referred to by many as a martyr.
Men wailed in mourning and beat their chests in song, many of them waving or wearing Iranian flags.Mourners at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla Grand Mosque on Saturday.Altaf Qadri; Altaf Qadri / APRoads around the funeral site were closed to traffic, forcing many to continue on foot, while loudspeakers broadcast religious songs and music across the capital, streets lined with giant portraits of Khamenei.Supporters, who travelled in from all over the country, have embraced flag-waving in a way rarely seen before, with many carrying national flags rather than religious banners that traditionally dominate gatherings, reflecting a surge in nationalist sentiment since the start of the war.In footage, some mourners were heard chanting “revenge, revenge,” and “We will kill, we will kill, he who killed our Imam....