Mashhad

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi was laid to rest on Thursday, concluding days of funeral rites attended by throngs of mourners after his death in a helicopter crash, state media reported.

Hundreds of thousands marched in his home town Mashhad to bid farewell to Raisi ahead of his burial following processions in the cities of Tabriz, Qom, Tehran and Birjand.

Thousands marched in Iran on Thursday on the final day of funeral rites for president Ebrahim Raisi, who will be laid to rest in his hometown days after dying in a helicopter crash.

Raisi, 63, died on Sunday alongside his foreign minister and six others when their helicopter crashed in the country's mountainous northwest while returning from a dam inauguration.

The announcement was made at the mosque of Imam Reza in the city of Mashhad

Ten people were killed during street protests in Iran on Sunday, state television said on Monday, Reuters reported. 

The nationwide protests have drawn in tens of thousands of people and represent the boldest challenge to Iran's leadership since pro-reform unrest in 2009. Calls for more demonstrations on Monday raise the possibility of prolonged instability.

Two people have died in the city of Dorud in western Iran during the protests yesterday, the governor of the province of Lorestan said, quoted by world news agencies. But in his words, protesters were not shot by security forces who were not shooting at demonstrators, but from "foreign agents".

Iranians voted in fiercely-contested presidential polls on May 19, standing in long lines to choose between Hassan Rouhani, the incumbent who wants normal ties with the West, and a populist challenger backed by powerful security hawks.

Iranian voters will decide the fate of moderate President Hassan Rouhani and his policy of engagement with the West on May 19 as he goes head-to-head with hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi.

Rouhani has spent four years trying to pull Iran out of its global isolation, reaching a 2015 deal with world powers that ended some sanctions in exchange for curbs to its nuclear program.

To outsiders this was a 2018 World Cup qualifier. To fans of Afghanistan and Syria who watched it live, however, it was much more than a football match.
 
With both countries wracked by war FIFA has barred them from hosting home games, making native supporters hard to come by in a slew of neutral venues and consequently dulled atmospheres.