Millions of mourners took part in six days of funeral ceremonies for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after he was killed in US-Israeli strikes in late February. The mourning period for Iran's former supreme leader ended with anti-US and anti-Israel slogans still echoing through the crowds.
The scale of the funeral matters because it showed how quickly grief turned into a public display of anger. Throughout the mourning period, Iran's new supreme leader remained out of public sight, leaving the ceremonies centered on Khamenei himself and on the political message attached to his death.
That message was sharpened by fresh US strikes as the ceremonies drew to a close. The funeral was meant to signal a moment of closure, but the renewed attacks kept the mood charged and undercut any sense that the crisis around Khamenei's killing had settled.
What remains unresolved is not the size of the mourning, but what follows it. With the new supreme leader still unseen and tensions rising again, the six-day observance may be remembered less as an ending than as the opening scene in a longer confrontation involving the US and Israel.
