Eight killed in gun attack on funeral at Jordan church as hunt continues for three assailants
Three masked gunmen opened fire during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in Jordan's Karak governorate on Friday afternoon, killing eight people and injuring dozens more, according to the country's Ministry of Health. Authorities are treating the shooting in the village of Hamoud as a rare attack on a Christian place of worship and as an act of terror.
Survivors said they heard an explosion just after the service began. Two attackers who arrived in a vehicle were joined by a third carrying a semi-automatic rifle, and the three entered the church and opened fire for several minutes, according to accounts from those who survived.
One survivor, lawyer Nasser al-Burqan, told the Reuters news agency that an attacker standing about two metres (6.5 feet) away pointed a handgun at him and opened fire. When everything quietened down, he looked out of the window behind him and saw two assailants — one masked, the other carrying a handgun. Later, his son, who had also been present, called to say he had been shot in the leg and was being treated in hospital.
Tarek Ammarin, who was visiting a relative injured in the attack and now in hospital, said: 'A massacre, a massacre in every sense of the word.' Bahjat al-Rushda, mayor of Shihan village in Karak, condemned what he called a 'wicked' attack and said: 'God willing, this country will remain safe.'
Jordan's Petra news agency reported on Saturday that eight people were killed in the shooting, including seven who died at the scene and one who succumbed to her injuries hours after the attack. Of the 40 people injured, 27 are still in hospital. The Director of Prince Ali Military Hospital in Karak said one person is in critical condition after undergoing surgery.
State news channel Al-Mamlaka reported that security forces were deployed to the church and were in pursuit of the suspects who had arrived in a vehicle. Security camera footage broadcast by Al-Mamlaka shows three people shooting outside the church and running towards its entrance, while other footage shows the attackers opening fire on a group of men outside the building who were trying to flee.
The identity of the three attackers has not been confirmed, with government statements referring to them as 'unknown assailants'. Interior Minister Mazin Al-Farrayeh said a group of 'extremists' that have 'no relationship to humanity' were responsible for the attack, though no specific groups were mentioned. Prime Minister Jafar Hassan said on Friday that the attack was a by-product of terrorist ideology and 'blind extremism', but did not give specifics about the attackers.
King Abdullah II said those behind the attack would face the 'harshest penalties', as he offered his condolences to the victims' families. He has ordered a review of the country's security procedures for responding to terrorist attacks. The Prime Minister declared three days of mourning following the attack, with flags to be flown at half-mast over government and public buildings.
Karak governorate is about 120km (75 miles) south of Amman and is home to many from Jordan's Christian minority, which makes up about 300,000 of the country's population of 11.5 million people. Taylor Luck, senior Middle East correspondent at the Christian Science Monitor, told Al Jazeera that Jordan's Christians pride themselves on interfaith solidarity and coexistence, and that Christians and Muslims have lived side-by-side in Karak for generations. He said that if the attack had been carried out in an attempt to divide the community, it is more likely that the community comes back even stronger. Jordan is also home to many biblical sites that draw visitors from around the world.
Several countries, including Azerbaijan, Iraq, Poland, Palestine and Qatar, have issued statements condemning the attack and expressing their solidarity with Jordan. Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar in Cairo, a leading Sunni religious institution, offered his condolences to the families of the victims, calling the shooting a 'heinous terrorist attack'. In a social media post he wrote that the crime contradicts the teachings of the Abrahamic religions and reveals that its perpetrators are devoid of all compassion, humanity and morality. The United States embassy in Jordan also released a statement on X offering condolences to victims and survivors of the attack.
Karak has seen a major attack before. In 2016, the ISIL (ISIS) group carried out a series of attacks across Karak, including a deadly siege on a Crusader-era castle in which 10 people were killed, including a Canadian tourist and seven police officers. Dozens of others were injured. Four attackers were later killed by Jordanian security forces following a long standoff.
The motive for the latest attack remains unclear since the attackers' identities have yet to be revealed. Security forces are continuing their search, and authorities say the shooting is being investigated as an act of terror.
