State television aired footage of thousands of black-clad mourners chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” as they held aloft photographs of the dead.
“Boom, boom, Tel Aviv,” read one banner, referring to the retaliatory missile fire launched by Iran against Israel during their 12-day war.
State television showed mock-ups of ballistic missiles like those Iran fired at Israel alongside coffins draped in Iranian flags.
President Masoud Pezeshkian attended the ceremony as did Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani, a senior adviser to Khamenei who used a walking cane after being wounded in an Israeli strike in the war, the television images showed.
But the supreme leader himself stayed away. Khamenei had delivered a video address on Thursday to proclaim “victory” in the conflict which ended with a truce earlier this week.
As the funeral procession wound its way across the spawling metropolis, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi paid tribute to the war effort in a post on his Instagram account.
“Iranians gave blood, not land; gave their loved ones, not honour; they withstood a thousand-ton rain of bombs, but did not surrender,” the top diplomat said, adding that Iran does not recognise the word “surrender.”
Among the dead was armed forces chief of staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri, who will be buried with his wife and journalist daughter who were killed alongside him.
Nuclear scientist Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, also killed in the attacks, will be laid to rest with his wife.
Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami, killed on the first day of the war, will be buried on Sunday.
Of the 60 people who are to be laid to rest after the ceremony, four are children and four are women. (AFP)
