Iran begins public mourning for Ayatollah killed in February

Watch: Iranians mourn late supreme leader as funeral events begin

Iran has begun several days of public mourning and funeral processions for its former Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, more than four months after he was killed in strikes launched by the US and Israel.

The former Ayatollah's body will lie in state in Tehran's Grand Mosalla from Friday, ahead of his burial in his hometown of Mashhad next Thursday.

Iranian authorities said 12 to 20 million people were expected to attend, which they are calling the "funeral of the century".

It comes as Iran and the United States observe a fragile ceasefire after signing a preliminary deal to halt their conflict in June.

Six days of ceremonies will start at 06:00 (03:30 BST) on Saturday, at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Mosalla, which visitors can visit to pay their respects until Sunday afternoon.

There will be an official funeral ceremony in Tehran on Saturday, which the Tehran-based Mohammad Rasulullah Corps is leading.

The group's commander Hassan Hassanzadeh said Khamenei's coffin would be displayed on an elevated platform, with crowd flows designed to allow visitors to enter and leave within 15 to 20 minutes.

Khamenei's body will lie in the Grand Mosalla for three days, alongside the remains of family members who were also killed in the US and Israeli strikes in February.

The coffins of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his family members, including his 1-year-old granddaughter Zahra Mohammadi Golpayegani, who is pictured

Authorities have ordered public and private offices in Tehran to close from Saturday through Monday, while traffic restrictions will shut down most of the city centre to private vehicles, AFP reported. The airspace over Tehran will be partially closed from Friday and fully closed on Monday.

On Tuesday, events will move to Qom, just south of Tehran, where a senior Shia cleric will lead funeral prayers at Jamkaran - one of Iran's most prominent and symbolic religious sites.

Members of the Basij paramilitary forces gather on the day international delegates participate in a farewell ceremony

Khamenei's body will then travel to Najaf in Iraq on Wednesday. Following a procession at the shrine of Imam Ali, Shia Islam's first imam, ceremonies will continue in Karbala before the body returns to Iran.

Iranian officials say the Iraq events follow requests from Iraqi groups, with some analysts seeing them as representative of Khamenei's influence across the Shia Muslim world and Iran's religious and political ties across the region.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Baghdad t