Israeli strikes kill at least 62 people in Gaza

Khamenei skips public funeral as the crowd chants 'Death to America' and 'Death to Israel'

- 

HUNDREDS of thousands of mourners lined the streets of downtown Tehran on Saturday for the funeral of the head of the Revolutionary Guard and other top commanders and nuclear scientists killed during a 12-day war with Israel.

The caskets of Guard's chief Gen Hossein Salami, the head of the Guard's ballistic missile program, Gen Amir Ali Hajizadeh and others were driven on trucks along the capital's Azadi Street as people in the crowds chanted: "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."

Salami and Hajizadeh were both killed on the first day of the war, June 13, as Israel launched a war it said meant to destroy Iran's nuclear programme, specifically targeting military commanders, scientists and nuclear facilities.

State media reported more than 1 million people turned out for the funeral procession, which was impossible to independently confirm, but the dense crowd packed the main Tehran thoroughfare along the entire 4.5 kilometer (nearly 3 mile) route.