Gunmen opened fire during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in Jordan's Karak governorate on Friday, killing at least seven people and wounding 34, Jordanian authorities said. The shooting took place at a church in the village of Hamoud, where dozens of people had gathered for the funeral procession.1,2,3,4,5
Obaidullah Al-Maaytah, director of Jordan's Public Security Directorate, told a press conference that seven people were confirmed dead. Twenty-seven of the wounded were still being treated in hospitals, he said. Such attacks are extremely rare in Jordan, where Christians number about 300,000 of a population of roughly 11.5 million.1,3,5
Survivors said they heard an explosion when the funeral procession started, after which masked attackers broke into the church and began shooting for several minutes. Video that appeared to come from a security camera mounted on the church, aired by the state-owned Al-Mamlaka television station, showed three people firing at it from a sidewalk, hiding behind trees and a low wall before running toward the entrance.1,3,5
The accounts differ on how many attackers there were. Al-Mamlaka earlier reported that security forces were pursuing two suspects who had got out of a vehicle and opened fire, and funeral attendee Khaled Burqan told the station that one of the assailants carried a pistol and the other a rifle. The Associated Press, describing images broadcast on Jordanian state television, said two gunmen who appeared to be holding pistols approached and fired, and that a third man with a semiautomatic rifle then opened fire.1,3,5
No group had immediately claimed responsibility. The search for the gunmen was ongoing, Al-Maaytah said, pledging that "the perpetrators will be caught and our national unity will not be hit." A government statement said the attack was "carried out by unknown assailants" and did not say whether any gunmen had been captured or killed. It said that "investigations are underway at full speed."1,3,5
Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya, whose name France 24 spelled Mazin Al Farrayeh, described the attack as "terrorist" and "unprecedented" and said it had been perpetrated by a group with "no relationship to humanity." He did not name a group, and said it was too early to tell whether the attackers, whom he called "extremists," had links to known groups inside or outside Jordan. "This country will never be dragged into terrorism and violence," he said, adding that "Jordanians have never seen something like this before."1,5
King Abdullah II said on X that Jordan "will confront the terrorist act that targeted Karak with the harshest penalties," and offered his "deepest condolences to the families of the martyrs, and our wishes for recovery to the wounded." The king also said, "The blood of Jordanians is precious, and we will strike with an iron fist against anyone who overreaches against this country."1,3
The United Arab Emirates foreign ministry condemned "terrorist and criminal acts" and said it rejected all forms of violence "that aim to undermine security and stability." UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also strongly condemned the attack, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. "It goes without saying that an attack not only on a place of worship but during a funeral procession is especially heinous," Dujarric told reporters. Ahmed al-Tayeb, grand imam of Al-Azhar in Cairo, offered condolences to the victims' families and called it a "heinous terrorist attack." Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein called his Jordanian counterpart and "affirmed Iraq's solidarity with Jordan in the face of terrorism," his office said. Condemnation also came from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Oman.1,3
The reports gave different distances from the capital. Al Jazeera put Karak about 120km (75 miles) south of Amman, while the Associated Press put the Greek Orthodox church in Karak about 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of the capital.1,3
Karak is home to a minority Christian population, the Associated Press said. In 2016, Al Jazeera reported that an ISIL assault saw fighters hole up in a Crusader-era castle and kill 10 people, including security officers and a Canadian tourist, before Jordanian security forces shot and killed the attackers. The AP's account of the 2016 attacks described gunmen who ambushed police in a series of attacks in Karak, killing 10 people, including seven officers, and did not name a group.1,3
Burqan said dozens of people were present and that the gunmen opened fire on them for several minutes. Another witness, Ihab Ammareen, told Al-Mamlaka that he saw bloodied people collapse on the floor after the attack. "People were crying, wailing, screaming – it's hard to describe," he told the station.1,5
Taylor Luck, senior Middle East correspondent at the Christian Science Monitor, described Karak as home to "Christians and Muslims who have lived side by side for generations." "This community prides themselves on its interfaith solidarity and coexistence," Luck said. Xavier Abu Eid, a political analyst, said the shooting also bore on Amman's public diplomacy as a custodian of Christian and Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, and Al Jazeera noted that King Abdullah has for years been a vocal critic of Israel's attacks on religious sites in occupied Palestinian territory. "This is something that goes totally against the message that Jordan wants to give to the world," Abu Eid said. Luck added that if the attack was "intended to create divisions, we are likely to see this community come back even stronger."1
