Video shows procession for slain Hezbollah leaders, not funeral for Iran's Khamenei
- Published on March 5, 2026 at 07:41
- 2 min read
- By AFP France
- Translation and adaptation Dene-Hern CHEN, AFP Australia
Mourners gathered in Tehran after Iranian state TV announced that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint US-Israeli operation in February 2026, but an old clip circulating on social media of people swarming around coffins draped in yellow cloth does not show his funeral procession. The footage was actually filmed in Lebanon in 2025 during the funeral procession of slain Hezbollah leaders.
"Millions at the funeral of the Iranian leader," reads a Facebook post shared on March 2, 2026.
The attached video, which garnered more than 90,000 views, shows crowds carrying a glass-covered hearse displaying two coffins swathed in yellow cloth.
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 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.
The clip also circulated in similar Instagram, TikTok and X posts.
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.
But the circulating video does not show a procession for the late Iranian leader.
A closer look shows a red and white flag with a tree symbol -- the national flag of Lebanon -- is affixed to the glass covering the coffins (archived link). People in the crowd are also carrying yellow flags with green text and symbols, which is the flag for Hezbollah (archived link).
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video also led to similar photos and scenes from Lebanon in February 2025, during the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's slain leader who was killed in September 2024 in an Israeli strike (archived link).
Nasrallah had led Hezbollah for more than three decades and his funeral in Beirut drew tens of thousands of black-clad mourners.
AFP also took a photo of the hearse carrying the yellow coffins of Nasrallah and his chosen successor Hashem Safieddine, who was killed in another Israeli air strike.
Iran announced on March 4, 2026, that a state funeral in Tehran for Khamenei -- initially planned for that evening -- was postponed "in anticipation of unprecedented turnout", state television reported (archived link).
A wave of misinformation surrounding the war has flooded social media platforms since the US-Israeli operation, including several false claims about Khamenei's funeral.
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