Iran began the funeral for its late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the 4th. A series of ceremonies spanning a week is expected to draw up to 20 million mourners, serving as a display of unity for the Islamic Republic both at home and abroad. According to the state-run IRNA news agency, the coffin was placed in a prayer facility in Tehran before funeral processions are held in the holy city of Qom and in Najaf and Karbala in Iraq, with burial planned in his hometown of Mashhad on July 9. Iranian authorities estimate that up to 20 million people will attend the funeral, which comes more than four months after Ayatollah Khamenei was killed at the start of a war with the United States and Israel. From the morning of the 4th, large crowds gathered in Tehran, where the coffins of Ayatollah Khamenei and four family members, draped in national flags and placed in glass cases, were arranged on a raised platform. His son Mojtaba has been named as his successor, but he was wounded in the attack that killed his father and has not appeared in public since.