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NAJAF, Iraq — Huge crowds thronged the streets of Najaf and packed the courtyards of its majestic shrine as they mourned on Wednesday late Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei during his funeral procession in Iraq.
Iran began six days of public funeral ceremonies for Khamenei on Saturday, including a dedicated day in neighbouring Iraq -- a Shia powerhouse with close ties to Tehran and home to the faith's most sacred shrines.
The procession in Iraq came as the United States and Iran renewed hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz.
The US military said it had struck dozens of Iranian targets in response to Tehran's attacks on three ships in Hormuz, with Iran's Revolutionary Guards later saying they had hit US military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait.
After a massive procession in Iran's holy city of Qom, Khamenei's body was brought Tuesday night to Iraq where authorities declared Wednesday a public holiday.
Since the early morning, despite the scorching heat, vast crowds filled the streets of Najaf, with some people pushing close hoping to touch Khamenei's coffin as it rode slowly in the back of a truck en route to the shrine of Imam Ali -- the Prophet Mohammed's son-in-law and the first Shia Imam.
There, the call for prayer echoed in the vast courtyards as hundreds of clerics in white and black turbans waited for hours to pray over Khamenei's remains.
Inside the shrine, thousands jostled to get closer to the coffin as it was carried away in the mausoleum's halls -- its last stop in Najaf before being flown to the other holy city of Karbala.
Khamenei's funeral will conclude with his burial on Thursday in his hometown of Mashhad in northeast Iran.
