Tehran, Mar 15 (V7N) — Iranians bid farewell to Ali Shamkhani, a political advisor and close aide to the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during a funeral held in the capital on Saturday.

A large crowd gathered at the Imamzadeh Saleh shrine in northern Tehran to pay their respects. Shamkhani, 70, was buried on the shrine’s premises following the funeral ceremony.

Shamkhani, a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had been appointed secretary of the Defense Council by Ayatollah Khamenei after last year’s Iran-Israel conflict. He had survived a deadly attack in Tehran at the time, later openly challenging Israel.

On February 28, Shamkhani was reportedly killed alongside the Supreme Leader in a joint US-Israel operation in Tehran.

END/SMA/AJ