The truck carrying the coffins of the slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and members of his family makes its way through mourners during the funeral procession toward Azadi Tower in Tehran, on Monday, July 6.
Vahid Salemi/AP

Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, thanked what he described as the “tens of millions” of people he said attended recent funeral ceremonies for his father, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a purported message released by Iranian media today.

There were no signs that Mojtaba attended the days-long funeral events after significant speculation about his whereabouts and health.

“On this occasion, I sincerely thank the tens of millions of people whose astonishing, enemy-defeating and historic presence filled the cities and villages of Iran and Iraq, especially Tehran, Qom, Najaf, Karbala and Mashhad,” Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency cited Mojtaba as saying.

Khamenei’s funeral events were crowded with millions of mourners, but with a population of around 90 million, many others in Iran did not take part, and some were even angry at the spectacle.

Over several days of mourning, Iran’s Health Ministry said around 15 million people were expected to take part, but they did not reveal how that figure was calculated. CNN cannot independently verify how many people attended.

Mojtaba has not been seen in public since the war began in February, only communicating with his supporters via written statements attributed to him.