Eight Killed When Gunmen Open Fire During Jordan Church Funeral
Security forces are searching for the attackers, and no group has claimed the shooting that left 40 people wounded.
By Harper Laurent ·
Eight people died and 40 more were injured on Friday when assailants opened fire on a Greek Orthodox church in the Karak governorate of Jordan. The shooting happened in broad daylight as a funeral service was under way, and lasted several minutes.
King Abdullah has directed the country's security apparatus to track down those responsible for the attack, the royal court said. The king travelled to Karak within hours of the shooting. Video footage from Saturday showed police positioned outside the church, and authorities have since increased guarding at shopping malls, foreign embassies and other sites nationwide, according to the US embassy in Amman.
The church sits in Karak, about 120 kilometers southwest of the capital Amman. Jordanian officials described the incident as an act of extremist terrorism. Prime Minister Jafar Hassan wrote on X that the attack resulted from terrorist ideology and blind extremism, and added: "We will not allow society to go down this path." King Abdullah vowed that those responsible would be punished "with an iron fist."
No organization has claimed the attack. Officials said it is too early to determine whether the assailants have connections to established groups inside or outside the country. The state-run Petra News Agency reported that Jordan has called three days of national mourning.
Nasser al-Burqan, a lawyer who survived, told the Reuters news agency that one attacker stood about two metres from him and aimed a handgun in his direction. He later learned from a phone call that his son, who had also attended the mass, was being treated in hospital for a leg wound. After the shooting ended, al-Burqan looked through a window behind him and saw two men, one wearing a mask and the other carrying a handgun.
Tarek Ammarin, whose relative was hurt, stood at a hospital treating the wounded and called it "a massacre, a massacre in every sense of the word." Attacks like this one are uncommon in Jordan, though authorities in the US-allied kingdom say they have repeatedly broken up plots in recent years. Karak is home to a minority Christian population, and Jordan contains several biblical sites that draw Christian pilgrims from around the world.
Bahjat al-Rushda, mayor of the nearby village of Shihan, condemned what he called a wicked attack and said: "God willing, this country will remain safe."
