Eight Dead in Karak Church Shooting as Jordan Hunts Three Men

Three unidentified gunmen are on the run in Jordan after killing eight people and injuring 40 others during a funeral service at a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hamoud. The attack occurred on Friday afternoon in Karak governorate, located approximately 120 kilometers south of Amman. The Ministry of Health confirmed the death toll on Saturday, noting that seven victims died at the scene while an eighth, a woman, succumbed to her injuries hours later.

Survivors described the sequence of events beginning with an explosion shortly after the service commenced. Two attackers arrived in a vehicle and were joined by a third man carrying a semi-automatic rifle. The group entered the church and fired for several minutes. Nasser al-Burqan, a lawyer who survived, stated that one attacker was positioned two meters away and shot at him with a handgun. His son was also in the building and was treated in hospital for a leg wound. Tarek Ammarin, who visited an injured relative, characterized the incident as a massacre in every sense of the word.

Of the 40 people wounded in the shooting, 27 remain hospitalized. A director at Prince Ali Military Hospital in Karak reported that one patient remains in critical condition following surgery. Security camera footage broadcast by the state channel Al-Mamlaka shows the three men firing outside the church and engaging a group of men attempting to flee. The attackers have not yet been identified by name or organization.

King Abdullah II ordered a review of Jordan’s security procedures for responding to terrorist attacks. He stated that those responsible would face the harshest penalties. Interior Minister Mazin Al-Farrayeh attributed the assault to a group of extremists without naming a specific organization. Prime Minister Jafar Hassan described the attack as a product of terrorist ideology and blind extremism. The prime minister declared a three-day national mourning period, with flags flown at half-mast over government buildings.

The attack has drawn international condemnation from countries including Azerbaijan, Iraq, Poland, Palestine, and Qatar. Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar, called the event a heinous terrorist attack. The United States embassy in Jordan offered condolences to the victims and survivors. The motive for the shooting remains unclear to authorities.

Karak governorate is home to a significant portion of Jordan’s roughly 300,000 Christians within a national population of 11.5 million. Taylor Luck, a senior Middle East correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, noted that the community in Karak has a history of interfaith coexistence. He suggested that if the attack intended to divide the population, the local community might emerge stronger. The region has experienced violence before, including a 2016 siege on a Crusader-era castle by ISIL militants that resulted in ten deaths.