Iran's longest-serving Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was flown back to Iran from Iraq on Thursday, with his coffin escorted by a fighter jet, according to Reuters footage.
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Khamenei's burial is scheduled later in the day in his hometown of Mashhad following a grand funeral ceremony. His coffin was brought from Iraq after funeral rites in the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.
Footage released by multiple news agencies showed a fighter jet escorting the aircraft carrying the coffin of Iran's topmost family's members.
Khamenei served as Iran's second supreme leader from 1989 until his death on February 28 this year. He was killed during Operation Epic Fury, a US military operation carried out in coordination with Israel that targeted senior Iranian leaders.
The strike sharply escalated tensions in the region, triggering a wider military confrontation between Iran and the US-Israel alliance, with both sides exchanging missile and drone attacks across the Middle East.
