Shafaq News-Najaf
Najaf isdeploying more than 25,000 security personnel, 100 ambulances, and a thousandmedical staff as the southern Iraqi city prepares to host the Iraqi leg of thefuneral procession for Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, with the publicmarch scheduled to begin at 6:00 a.m. Wednesday, according to multipleofficials who spoke to Shafaq News.
Iraqi andIranian flags line the main streets, particularly the Najaf-Kufa road, whileimages of Khamenei cover public squares, intersections, and billboard screens,a scene residents describe as unprecedented. Around 100 Husseini processions,volunteer groups providing food, water, and services to religious pilgrims,will be stationed along the route, according to Haidar Kaboun, director of theRituals and Mass Pilgrimages Department.
The processionwill set out from al-Sadr Teaching Hospital overpass toward the Shrine of ImamAli bin Abi Taleb, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam. Najaf GovernorYoussef Kanawi said the city will hold two separate programs: an officialceremony for state leaders, ministers, and parliamentarians, and a publicprocession open to the wider community. Official reception ceremonies arescheduled at Najaf International Airport on Tuesday evening.
NajafInternational Airport will suspend all commercial flight operations from 3:00p.m. local time on July 6 until 4:00 a.m. on July 9, the airport administrationannounced, citing operational reasons, the airport administration announced.
At least sevenprovinces, Baghdad, Najaf, Babil, Dhi Qar, Basra, Wasit, and Maysan, declaredWednesday an official holiday. Babil Provincial Council allocated 400 vehiclesto transport mourners to Najaf and Karbala, council chairman Asaad al-Muslimawisaid. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi's office also instructed governmentministries to assign buses for participants, according to an informed source.
Khamenei's bodyis to be flown from the Iranian city of Qom to Najaf International Airport,taken to the Imam Ali Shrine for farewell rites, then moved to Karbala —home tothe shrines of Imam Hussein bin Ali and his brother al-Abbas— before returningto Iran for burial at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad on July 9. Officialfuneral ceremonies began in Tehran on Friday and are scheduled to continue forabout a week.
Khamenei, wholed Iran for nearly four decades, was killed on February 28 during US-Israelistrikes on Iran.
: Najaf prepares to host Khamenei funeral procession