Iran holds funeral for military commanders and scientists killed in Israeli strikes

Black-clad mourners filled the streets of central Tehran on Saturday as Iran held a state funeral for about 60 people killed in Israeli attacks, including top military commanders and scientists.

"The ceremony to honour the martyrs has officially started," state TV said, showing footage of people waving Iranian flags and holding pictures of assassinated commanders near Enghelab Square as lorries bearing coffins draped with the Iranian flag passed through the crowd.

A ceremony was due to be followed by a funeral procession to Azadi Square, about 11km away.

President Masoud Pezeshkian, other senior government officials and military commanders, including Esmail Qaani, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, attended the funeral.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei did not appear in the state broadcast of the funeral. He has previously been shown holding prayers over the coffins of fallen military figures before their funerals.

The 12-day war between Israel and Iran, which began with Israeli strikes on June 13, claimed at least 627 lives in Iran and 28 in Israel, according to official counts reported by both countries.

Among those being laid to rest on Saturday is Gen Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of Iran's armed forces. He will be buried alongside his wife and daughter, a journalist for a local media outlet, who were also killed by an Israeli strike.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander in chief Maj Gen Hossein Salami will also be laid to rest after Saturday's ceremony, which will honour at least 30 other top commanders.

Nuclear scientist Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, who was also killed in the first wave of attacks, will be buried with his wife.

Of the 60 people who are to be laid to rest after the ceremony, four are children.

Both Israel and Iran claimed victory in the war. It ended after US President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire hours after Iran fired missiles at the US's Al Udeid airbase in Qatar on Monday night.

That attack, which did not cause any casualties, was a retaliation for the US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites last weekend, in the countr first intervention in the war.