Seven killed in shooting at Jordan church; king vows ‘harshest retaliation’

AMMAN, Jordan — Gunmen killed at least seven people and wounded dozens at a church in southern Jordan on Friday, authorities said, with the king vowing retaliation for the rare attack on Christians in the majority Sunni Muslim kingdom.

Assailants stormed the compound of a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hammoud in Karak governorate and opened fire, authorities said.

The Greek Orthodox church is about 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of the capital, Amman.

The gunmen got out of a vehicle and started shooting during a funeral procession, the public security directorate said in a statement, adding that a manhunt was underway for the perpetrators.

“The terrorist attack against Karak will be met with the harshest retaliation,” King Abdullah II said in an English-language post on X.

“We will strike with an iron fist against those who dare to threaten our nation.”

Al Arabiya released a CCTV footage of the attack that targeted a funeral at a church in Al-Karak, Jordan, in which Al-Mamlaka reported that six people were killed and 28 were injured. pic.twitter.com/kGGU4shCWi

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According to images from state broadcaster Al-Mamlaka, the king arrived in Karak on Friday evening.

After authorities gave a death toll of six, Director of Public Security Major General Abdullah Al-Maaytah said it had risen to seven, with 34 injured, 27 of whom were still receiving treatment.

Footage aired by Al-Mamlaka showed the moment of the attack.

Two gunmen are seen dressed in casual clothes and brandishing pistols, with a third carrying a long gun, before they open fire on the church from an entrance on the street and charge forward.

Reuters footage from the church after the attack showed blood smeared on the floor near its entrance, where security forces were deployed.

“A terrorist group has carried out a horrific act, one that is condemned in every respect, and the security services are working round the clock to track them down,” Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya told a press conference.

“Jordan has been targeted by a terrorist attack carried out by a group of extremists.”

He said the perpetrators had “absolutely no connection whatsoever to human values” and it “only serves to strengthen the Jordanians’ resolve… to combat and fight terrorism in all its forms.”

‘Heinous’

Minister of Government Communications Mohammed Al-Momani said security forces were investigating the attack.

A witness told Al-Mamlaka the gunmen fired continuously for five minutes before fleeing the scene.

Between 150 and 200 people were in and around the church at the time, the witness said, adding that most of the victims were aged between 50 and 70.

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

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in Jordan said that if the attack was aimed at driving out Christians from the holy land, “it will only make us cling to it more firmly and deepen our roots in it.”

“We are absolutely certain that Jordanian society will remain impervious to every dark, extremist ideology, and that this criminal act is far removed from — and alien to — the moderate Islam of our country,” it said.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, the Arab world’s only Christian head of state, called the shooting a “heinous terrorist attack.”

He said it “reaffirms once again that terrorism has no religion and no homeland, and its aim is to strike at coexistence and spread strife,” according to a presidency statement.

Attacks on houses of worship in Jordan are rare.

In 2016, an attack in Karak targeted a security center and police patrols, leaving 10 people dead.

The victims included seven security personnel and a female tourist, before four militants who had barricaded themselves inside Karak’s historic castle were killed