Jordan Church Attack: Three-Day Mourning Declared After Eight Killed
Security forces are pursuing three unidentified gunmen who opened fire during a Greek Orthodox funeral in Karak, leaving 40 people wounded.
By Luis Fernandez ·
Eight people lost their lives and 40 were injured when three men opened fire inside a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hamoud on Friday afternoon. The attack occurred during a funeral service, disrupting a routine gathering for the local community. Prime Minister Jafar Hassan declared three days of national mourning, ordering flags to fly at half-mast on government and public buildings across the kingdom.
Security forces are currently searching for the three attackers, whom officials describe as unknown assailants. Footage from security cameras shows the men firing outside the church entrance and engaging with a group of men attempting to flee. Interior Minister Mazin Al-Farrayeh attributed the violence to a group of extremists, though no specific organization was named. The motive for the shooting remains unclear to authorities.
King Abdullah II stated that the responsible parties would face the harshest penalties. He also directed a review of Jordan's security procedures regarding the response to terrorist attacks. The monarch offered condolences to the victims' families, marking a rare high-profile assault on a Christian place of worship in the country.
Survivors described the chaos of the attack. Nasser al-Burqan, a lawyer who survived, reported that one gunman fired a handgun at him from a distance of two metres. His son, also present, sustained a leg wound and is receiving hospital treatment. Tarek Ammarin, a visitor to the church, described the scene as a massacre in every sense of the word.
Health officials reported that seven victims died at the scene, while an eighth, a woman, succumbed to her injuries hours later. Of the 40 wounded, 27 remain hospitalized. The director of Prince Ali Military Hospital in Karak noted that one patient is in critical condition following surgery.
Karak governorate, located about 120 km south of Amman, is home to a substantial portion of Jordan's roughly 300,000 Christians. The country has a total population of 11.5 million. Taylor Luck, senior Middle East correspondent at the Christian Science Monitor, noted that Christians and Muslims have lived side by side in the region for generations.
International reactions included condolences from Azerbaijan, Iraq, Poland, Palestine, and Qatar. Ahmed al-Tayeb, grand imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar, termed the event a heinous terrorist attack. The United States embassy in Jordan also expressed sympathy for the victims and survivors. In 2016, the ISIL group conducted a series of attacks in the Karak area, including a castle siege that killed 10 people.
Source: Al Jazeera
