Mourners filled a large prayer complex in Tehran on Saturday to launch the week-long funeral rites for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The ceremonies opened with the national anthem, religious eulogies, and recitations from the Koran.

Iran is holding major funeral processions for Khamenei, whose 37-year rule ended in February from the opening airstrike in the war started by the US and Israel. The events aim to showcase public loyalty to the Islamic Republic's theocratic system and revolutionary spirit.

Television images displayed his coffin covered by the Iranian flag and his black turban. It rested with four other coffins of slain family members on a large black platform shaped like the Kaaba at Islam's holiest site in Mecca.

The broad courtyard at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla overflowed with mourners, many waving Iranian flags and holding photos of the slain leader.

'Death to America, revenge, revenge'

Chants of 'Death to America' rang through Tehran's Mosalla during the farewell to 'Mr. Martyr,' according to state broadcaster Seda va Sima.

Video clips on other state media outlets captured mourners shouting 'Our slogan is one word: Revenge, revenge' and 'We will kill, we will kill he who killed our Imam.'

Water sprayed from rooftops to ease the summer heat for attendees. Khamenei's coffin will stay at the Mosalla until Sunday evening.

The body is set to travel to Qom, Najaf, and Kerbala, major Shi'ite centers in Iran and Iraq, before final burial on Thursday in Mashhad at the nation's holiest shrine site.

The coffin was revealed late Thursday to crowds of weeping supporters who swayed and struck their heads to a sung lament while flowers were tossed from the platform into the gathering. On Friday the coffin lay in state inside the grand prayer hall honoring his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Officials intend to rally millions for large processions in the days ahead, supplying transport, food, and lodging to boost turnout.

The new supreme leader, Khamenei's son Mojtaba Khamenei, has not appeared in fresh images since suffering wounds in the strike that killed his father.