Mourners chanted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel” at a funeral service for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and others who died in a helicopter crash on Monday.
Mourners chanted “Death to America” at the funeral service for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday in the nation’s capital of Tehran.
President Raisi, Iran’s foreign minister and others were killed Sunday in a helicopter crash. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei presided over the service at Tehran University, where caskets of the dead draped in Iranian flags were seen with pictures of the deceased on them. A black turban was placed on Raisi’s coffin, signifying him as a direct descendant of the Islamic Prophet Muhammed, according to The Associated Press.
“Oh Allah, we didn’t see anything but good from him,” Khamenei said, quoting the standard prayer for the dead from the Quran, Islam’s holy book. The supreme leader left after he finished the prayer, and members of the crowd reached out to touch the coffins. Iran’s acting president, Mohammad Mokhber, stood nearby and openly wept during the service.
People then carried the coffins out on their shoulders, with chants outside of “Death to America!” They loaded them onto a semitruck trailer for a procession through downtown Tehran to Azadi, or “Freedom,” Square, where Raisi gave speeches in the past.
