Jordan Arrests Three Suspects Over Church Attack in Dawn Raid in Karak's al-Jadeeda Village

Jordanian security forces have arrested three suspects in connection with an attack on a Greek Orthodox church on Friday. Armed men stormed the compound of St George's Church in the village of Hamoud in Karak governorate, some 120km (75 miles) southwest of the capital, Amman, during a funeral procession, killing eight people and wounding 34 others. Authorities said the attack was carried out by 'extremist terrorists'.

Jordan's Interior Minister Mazin al-Farrayeh said on Monday that all three suspects were Jordanians and 'were identified early on in the wake of the terrorist incident, and the security services employed all the means at their disposal to apprehend them'.

The Public Security Directorate said the suspects were hiding in an abandoned house in the village of al-Jadeeda in Karak. They refused to surrender and attacked security forces, who returned fire and arrested all three suspects.

Al-Farrayeh said the suspects 'put up fierce resistance against the security forces, but were ultimately subdued and taken into custody, having sustained severe injuries'. The directorate said the suspects were injured, including one critically, during the dawn raid in Karak on Monday.

The minister added that many locations were raided in efforts to apprehend the suspects, and the scope of the search was expanded until the suspects were surrounded during the final operation. A Jordanian government source told Al Jazeera that the gun battle to arrest the suspects lasted about three hours in the village of al-Jadeeda, a six-minute drive from Hamoud, where the church attack happened.

Security forces recovered firearms and ammunition at the suspects' hideout, the state news agency Petra reported. The Public Security Directorate said, 'Terrorism has no place among us.'

Security camera footage of the attack has been circulating online. Video broadcast by Al-Mamlaka TV shows three people shooting outside the church and running towards its entrance. Other footage showed the attackers opening fire on a group of men outside the building trying to flee.

The directorate did not name the suspects or publicly identify possible affiliations with any armed group. Al-Farrayeh said a group of 'extremists' that have 'no relationship to humanity' were responsible for the attack, though no specific groups were mentioned. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

Jordan's King Abdullah II ordered security forces to respond with an 'iron fist' to the unprecedented attack on the Christian minority community. During a National Security Council meeting on Saturday, he said, 'The security and safety of Jordanians are a red line … the hand of justice will reach every terrorist.'

Prime Minister Jafar Hassan ordered three days of national mourning, beginning on Friday, with flags to be flown at half-mast over government and public institutions. Eight of the victims were laid to rest in Karak on Sunday in a funeral that drew a huge crowd; their coffins were draped with Jordanian flags as they were carried through the gathered mourners amid a large security presence.

Karak is home to a significant minority Christian community in the Muslim-majority kingdom, where Christians make up between 2 percent and 3 percent of the population.