Iran holds state funeral for military leaders killed in conflict with Israel

2025-06-28 09:35:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

A state funeral is being held in Iran for about 60 people, including military commanders and nuclear scientists, killed during the 12-day conflict with Israel.

Coffins draped in the Iranian flag, with portraits of the deceased commanders, were surrounded by large crowds of people near Enghelab Square in central Tehran.

The conflict ended with a ceasefire earlier this week, after the US became directly involved by bombing key nuclear sites in Iran.

Among those being buried is Mohammad Bagheri, the highest-ranking military officer in Iran, who was chief of staff of Iran's armed forces.

Large crowds of mourners dressed in black chanted slogans, waved Iranian flags and held portraits of the dead. Saturday's funeral will also be attended by Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as a number of nuclear scientists such as Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, who was the director of Tehran's Azad University.

This comes after US President Donald Trump said he would "absolutely" consider bombing Iran again. Responding to a question from the BBC's Nomia Iqbal at a White House press conference on Friday, he said he would "without a doubt" attack the country if intelligence concluded that Iran could enrich uranium to worrying levels.

Trump has also repeated his claims that Iran is "destroyed", writing: "Why would the so-called 'Supreme Leader' Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the war-torn country of Iran, so openly and foolishly say that he won the war with Israel, when I know his statement is a lie?" Trump also claimed to know "exactly where he [Khamenei] was hiding", saying he "would not let Israel, or the US Armed Forces... end his life".

"I saved him from a very ugly and shameful death, and he doesn't have to say, 'Thank you, President Trump!'" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned Trump against "inappropriate" comments towards Khamenei, who claimed that US and Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear sites had achieved "nothing significant."

"If President Trump is sincere about wanting a deal, he should put aside his disrespectful and unacceptable tone towards Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. The Great and Powerful Iranian people, who showed the world that the Israeli regime had no choice but to run to 'Babi' to avoid being shot down by our missiles, do not take kindly to threats and insults," Araghchi wrote in X.

Araghchi admitted that the recent bombings have caused "excessive and serious" damage to Iran's nuclear plants./ CNA