Iran postpones Khamenei funeral as US and Israeli bombardment continues unabated

Iran postpones Khamenei funeral as US and Israeli bombardment continues

Authorities in Iran have postponed the funeral ceremony for the late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as US and Israeli forces continue intense strikes across the country.

An official said there had been many requests from people wanting to attend the three-day event at a Tehran prayer complex and that infrastructure needed to be prepared. It had been due to begin on Wednesday night.

A member of the Assembly of Experts meanwhile said the clerical body was “close” to choosing a successor to Khamenei, who was killed in a strike at the start of the US and Israeli assault on Saturday.

Iran has responded by launching missiles and drones at Israel and Gulf states with US bases.

Kuwait’s Health Ministry said overnight that a girl had been killed by shrapnel that fell on a residential area during an Iranian attack.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said a US submarine sank an Iranian Navy frigate in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Sri Lanka.

“The warship thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death,” he told reporters.

Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary Air Vice Marshal Sampath Thuyyakontha said the bodies of 80 people on board the IRIS Dena had been recovered.

Another 32 people have been rescued, while dozens more are missing.

Hegseth also said that US and Israeli forces would have total aerial superiority over Iran within days and would “soon” control the country.

“This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down,” he declared.

The Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, said US President Donald Trump had “dragged the American people into an unjust war”.

Khamenei, who was Iran’s spiritual leader and its highest authority was killed at his compound in Tehran in the first wave of US and Israeli strikes, along with his wife, one of their adult sons, and several top officials.

The three-day funeral ceremony for the 86-year-old cleric had been due to start on Wednesday, with mourners invited to pay their respects as he lay in state at the capital’s Grand Mosalla prayer complex.

But on Wednesday morning the head of the Islamic Propaganda Co-ordination Council of Tehran province told the hardline Tasnim news agency that it had been decided to postpone the ceremony until “a more appropriate time”.

Seyyed Mohsen Mahmoudi said this was because of “the high volume of requests to attend this ceremony and the need to provide appropriate facilities to host the people”.

Following Khamenei’s assassination, state media showed crowds of the Islamic Republic’s supporters protesting in Tehran against the US and Israeli attacks. But social media videos also showed opponents celebrating on the streets in the capital and other cities.

Khamenei became supreme leader in 1989 after the death of the Islamic Republic’s founding father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He maintained a firm grip on Iran’s politics and its armed forces, and suppressed challenges to the ruling system, sometimes violently.

Many people called for his overthrow or his death during nationwide protests in late December and early January. Security forces under his command crushed the uprising with unprecedented force, killing at least 6,480 people, according to human rights groups.