Iraqi religious ceremony falsely linked to death of Iran’s Khamenei
- Published on March 3, 2026 at 04:02
- 2 min read
- By Ara Eugenio, AFP Philippines
Some Iranians reacted with grief and shock to the killing of the Islamic republic's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by joint US-Israeli strikes on February 28, 2026, but a video shared in posts about his death does not show his funeral procession in Tehran. The clip depicts an annual "symbolic funeral" held in Iraq's capital Baghdad commemorating a revered Islamic figure.
"Crowds swarmed the funeral of Iran's leader," reads Tagalog-language text over a Facebook video shared on March 2, 2026.
The clip depicts a dense black-clad crowd filling a large public square, with a gold-coloured dome of what appears to be a mosque in the background.
"The crowd is incredible; people really massed at the leader's funeral," says the caption. "I wonder what happens next. Will things get even more chaotic now that Iran's leader is gone?"
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and top military leaders were killed on February 28, after the United States and Israel jointly launched a barrage of ongoing strikes on the Islamic republic (archived link).
The conflict has spread across the Middle East as Iranian forces retaliated against Israel and several Gulf states hosting US interests, while Israeli forces have targeted Hezbollah positions in Lebanon following rocket fire from the Tehran-backed group in response to Khamenei's killing.
At the first reports of Khamenei’s death, many Iranians erupted into cheers from apartment buildings in the capital Tehran while others blared car horns and blasted music in the streets (archived link).
After state TV confirmed the reports, Iranian mourners dressed in black took to the streets in Tehran’s central Enghelab Square. Some were angry while others wept.
The supposed clip of mourners spread across social media, but it is unrelated to Khamenei's death.
A reverse image search on Google led to similar footage uploaded on Facebook by Iraqi broadcaster Karbala TV on January 15 (archived link).
In the clip, a massive crowd can be seen carrying the same green-coloured coffin in front of the same domed building featured in the false posts.
The Arabic-language caption states it depicts a "symbolic funeral" at the Holy Kadhimiya Shrine in Baghdad, Iraq, to commemorate the death of the "unjustly poisoned" Imam Musa al-Kadhim, the seventh of 12 revered imams in Shia Islam.
In Baghdad, Shia pilgrims throng to the golden-domed shrine yearly for the event to mourn the holy man, who was poisoned while in prison in the 8th century and is buried at the site (archived link).
The footage matches with Google Street View imagery of the shrine in Baghdad (archived link).
The video also corresponds with photos taken on January 15 by a photographer for the Reuters news agency (archived link)
AFP photos and videos show mourners in Tehran and elsewhere in Iran carried Iranian flags as they gathered after state media confirmed Khamenei's death (archived links here and here).
The war between Iran and the United States has triggered a wave of misinformation, debunked by AFP here.
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