Farewell to President Raeisi

Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi has been laid to rest, concluding days of funeral attended by several millions of mourners after his "martyrdom-like passing" in a helicopter crash.

At least three million mourners marched in his home town Mashhad Thursday to bid farewell to President Raeisi, the mega city's mayor said, following processions in the cities of Tabriz, Qom, Tehran and Birjand.

Later at dusk, the president's body was lowered into a tomb at the Imam Reza Shrine, where Shia Islam’s eighth imam is buried and millions of pilgrims visit each year.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, expressing his deep sorrow over the "martyrdom-like passing", announced five days of national mourning on Monday.

The cortege carrying the coffins of the "martyrs" attracted huge numbers of mourners who thronged main thoroughfares and adjoining streets for several kilometers, wherever it went.

Statesmen from West Asia and beyond from some 60 countries attended a later memorial service, including Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Tunisian President Kais Saied.

Millions of men and women dressed in black crowded around the Imam Reza Shrine under its golden dome, weeping and beating their chests in sorrow.

Earlier tens of thousands of people lined the streets of Birjand, capital of the eastern province of South Khorasan, to bid farewell to the late president as his coffin moved through the main street.

The 63-year-old president lost his life on Sunday alongside his foreign minister and six others after their helicopter went down in the country's mountainous northwest.

The incident engulfed Iran in shock and grief and generated a groundswell of support and solidarity from Muslims and non-Muslims across the world.