Iran starts funeral for top brass slain in war with Israel: state TV

TEHRAN: Iran began a state funeral service Saturday for around 60 people, including its military commanders and nuclear scientists, killed in war with Israel, state media reported.

“The ceremony to honour the martyrs has officially started,” state TV said, showing footage of people donning black clothes, waving Iranian flags and holding pictures of the slain military commanders.

The United States had carried out strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites last weekend, joining its ally Israel’s bombardments of Iran’s nuclear programme in the 12-day conflict launched on June 13.

Both Israel and Iran claimed victory in the war that ended with a ceasefire, with Iranian leader Khamenei downplaying the US strikes as having done “nothing significant”.

In a tirade on his Truth Social platform, Trump blasted Tehran Friday for claiming to have won the war.

He also claimed to have known “EXACTLY where he (Khamenei) was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces… terminate his life”.

“I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, ‘THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!'” the US leader said.

Trump added he had been working in recent days on the possible removal of sanctions against Iran, one of Tehran’s main demands.

“But no, instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more,” Trump said.

Hitting back at Trump Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the Republican president’s comments on Khamenei.

“If President Trump is genuine about wanting a deal, he should put aside the disrespectful and unacceptable tone towards Iran’s Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei,” Araghchi posted on social media platform X.

“The Great and Powerful Iranian People, who showed the world that the Israeli regime had NO CHOICE but to RUN to ‘Daddy’ to avoid being flattened by our Missiles, do not take kindly to Threats and Insults.”

The Israeli strikes on Iran killed at least 627 civilians, Tehran’s health ministry said. Iran’s attacks on Israel killed 28 people, according to Israeli figures.

The state funeral proceedings in Tehran for 60 nuclear scientists and military commanders killed in Israeli strikes began at 8:00 am (0430 GMT).

Iranian media broadcast the first images of the proceedings early Saturday for the “martyrs of the war imposed by the Zionist regime”.

Footage showed coffins draped in Iranian flags and bearing portraits of the slain commanders in uniform near Enghelab Square where a ceremony is due to take place.

It will be followed by a funeral procession to Azadi Square, about 11 kilometres (seven miles) across the sprawling metropolis.

Mohsen Mahmoudi, head of Tehran’s Islamic Development Coordination Council, vowed it would be a “historic day for Islamic Iran and the revolution”.

Among the dead is Mohammad Bagheri, a major general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the second-in-command of the armed forces after the Iranian leader.

He will be buried alongside his wife and daughter, a journalist for a local media outlet, all killed in an Israeli attack.

Nuclear scientist Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, also killed in the attacks, will be buried with his wife.

Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami, who was killed on the first day of the war, will also be laid to rest after Saturday’s ceremony — which will also honour at least 30 other top commanders.

Of the 60 people who are to be laid to rest after the ceremony, four are children.