Iranian official says area around Bushehr nuclear plant struck
Ehsan Jahaniyan, deputy governor of Iran's Bushehr province, said on Thursday that projectiles fired by the United States struck areas around the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Jahaniyan, quoted by Iran's state news agency IRNA, said several locations in the province were hit around midday. He gave no immediate details on damage at or near the plant.
Clerics wait for the arrival of the coffin of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, Iraq, July 8, 2026.
The Islamic Republic sought to turn Ali Khamenei’s funeral ceremonies in Iraq into a regional show of loyalty, using processions in Najaf and Karbala to suggest that his authority reached beyond Iran even as Tehran’s allied network faces growing pressure.
After funeral processions in Tehran and Qom, the coffins of Khamenei and several members of his family, who were killed in the February 28 US-Israeli attack, were taken on Tuesday to Najaf, home to the shrine of Imam Ali, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam.
They were transferred on Wednesday to Karbala, home to the shrine of Imam Hussein. Both cities carry deep religious symbolism for Shiites, especially in narratives of martyrdom, sacrifice and political defiance.
Political analyst Iman Aghayari told Iran International that the Islamic Republic was using the ceremonies to present Khamenei’s influence as extending beyond Iran’s borders.
He said Tehran also wanted to signal to Western governments that its influence in countries hosting allied armed groups “is not confined to those proxy forces, but is rooted among the people of those countries as well.”
A funeral staged across Shiite centers
A number of current and former Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, along with Shiite and Sunni political, military and religious figures, welcomed the funeral delegation at Najaf airport.
The delegation was led by Khamenei’s eldest son, Mostafa Khamenei, and accompanied by President Masoud Pezeshkian, who cut short his visit and returned to Tehran early Wednesday following renewed US military strikes.
The Iraqi government declared Wednesday a public holiday to facilitate attendance and organized transportation for mourners traveling to Najaf and Karbala.
Iranian state media, citing Iraqi officials and the Popular Mobilization Forces, said more than two million people attended the ceremony in Najaf, while participation in Karbala was reported to be more than double that number.
The figures could not be independently verified.
People attend a funeral procession for Iran's slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during a funeral procession in Karbala, Iraq, July 9, 2026.
A claimed display of strength
Supporters of the Islamic Republic portrayed the ceremonies as proof of regional solidarity behind the so-called Axis of Resistance, Tehran’s network of allied governments, militias and political movements across the Middle East.
Esmail Qaani, commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, said the funeral procession in Iraq would “make the red line of vengeance more prominent” and “further strengthen the united resolve of the Iraqi and Iranian peoples against American conspiracies.”
Defa Press, a news agency affiliated with Iran’s armed forces, described the ceremonies as “a transnational display of the Axis of Resistance’s power and confidence,” saying they showed political unity between Iran and Iraq.
Writing for the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency, political commentator Aghil Emami argued that the funeral proved the two nations’ loyalty to “shared ideals and the transnational leadership of the Islamic Revolution.”
People attend a funeral procession for Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, Iraq, July 8, 2026.
Religious symbolism and political messaging
Holding funeral ceremonies in Iraq – home to one of the world’s largest Shiite populations after Iran – carried both religious and political value for the Islamic Republic.
Iranian state media and some Iraqi Shiite politicians and outlets framed the processions through the language of Imam Hussein’s martyrdom, presenting Shiites as a unified political community confronting what they called “American arrogance” across the region.
For Tehran, the symbolism was especially important after Khamenei’s death and amid uncertainty over the future of its regional network.
The ceremonies allowed Iranian officials and supporters to link Khamenei’s legacy to the shrines of Najaf and Karbala, while also trying to reinforce the religious legitimacy of the Islamic Republic and of his successor.
The hardline X account Rah-e Deylami argued that Iraq, once Iran’s wartime enemy in the 1980s, had become “one of the pillars of the Axis of Resistance thanks to the blood of the martyred leader” and his policies.
It also pointed to mourners carrying photographs of Mojtaba Khamenei, saying the funeral had become “a ceremony of allegiance to his worthy successor” and that “Khamenei’s Iraqi followers have come to declare that they will continue this path.”
Such claims are difficult to measure against actual public sentiment in Iraq, where attitudes toward Iran and Iran-backed groups have long been mixed and politically contested.
AFinnish supermarket group has found itself unexpectedly drawn into Ali Khamenei’s funeral ceremonies after footage from Iraq appeared to show his coffin being unloaded from a refrigerated truck carrying K-Group branding.
The scene, filmed in Karbala and circulated by Reuters, showed a large crowd surrounding a refrigerated truck marked with orange-and-white logos resembling those of Finland’s K Group, part of the retail giant Kesko. Men in dark clothing then pulled a coffin from the frosted rear compartment and carried it above the crowd.
The footage was filmed during the Iraqi leg of Khamenei’s funeral processions, which moved through Najaf and Karbala before his planned burial in Mashhad on July 9.
IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News on Thursday published images it said showed Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani at Mashhad airport as the coffin of supreme leader Ali Khamenei arrived for funeral ceremonies.
European Parliament member Hannah Neumann said on Thursday that Iran's future would be shaped by people "who, despite everything, continue to resist," following the burial of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
"Khamenei leaves behind a country scarred by repression, fear & isolation," Neumann wrote on X. "But he also leaves behind something he could never destroy: #WomanLifeFreedom."
"The dictator is gone. The struggle for a free Iran is not," she said.
A US strike hit a railway bridge in northern Iran used on trade routes linked to China and Russia, IRGC-affiliated Fars News reported on Thursday.
The report said cruise missiles targeted the railway bridge in Aqqala county, Golestan province, calling it a strategic point on the China-Turkmenistan-Iran rail corridor.
The report said Russia had used the route to move goods since last year and that Chinese train traffic on the line had tripled after the maritime blockade.
