A shooting during a funeral at a Christian church in southern Jordan left nine people dead and dozens wounded, the deadliest attack on the country's Christian minority in years. Three gunmen, at least two of them masked, stormed Saint George's Greek Orthodox Church in the village of Hammoud, in Karak governorate, about 120 kilometers south of Amman, on Friday afternoon and opened fire on mourners, according to Jordan's Public Security Directorate.
The death toll rose through Saturday. On Friday, authorities had recorded seven dead and 34 injured. On Saturday, Health Minister Ibrahim Al Bdour told the AFP news agency that a second critically wounded victim had died, bringing the total to nine, with 25 people still hospitalized. The state news agency Petra, cited by Al Jazeera, put the number of injured at 40, of whom 27 remained in hospital, one in critical condition after surgery.
Three gunmen still at large
Survivors told the Reuters news agency they heard an explosion just as the service began. Two attackers arrived by vehicle and joined a third man carrying a semi-automatic rifle, and the group fired for several minutes inside the church. Lawyer Nasser al-Burqan, who attended the funeral, said one of the gunmen pointed a handgun at him from about two meters away and fired; his son was shot in the leg and hospitalized. Security camera footage broadcast by state channel Al-Mamlaka shows three men shooting outside the church and running toward the entrance. By Saturday night all three remained at large. Interior Minister Mazen Al Faraya blamed "a group of extremists" without naming any organization, and no group has claimed the attack.
The attack is being followed closely in Brasilia. Jordan is a longstanding Brazilian partner in the Middle East and ranks among the suppliers of potash and phosphates to Brazilian agribusiness, which depends on imported fertilizers. The country, a constitutional monarchy with a Sunni Muslim majority, is home to a Christian minority of about 300,000 people out of a population of 11.5 million, and has long been cited as a rare case of stable interfaith coexistence in the region. Attacks of this scale against churches are uncommon on Jordanian soil.
King vows "harshest response"
King Abdullah II visited the wounded at Prince Ali Military Hospital in Karak on Saturday, after chairing a National Security Council meeting. In a post on the social network X, he wrote:
"The terrorist attack against Karak will receive the harshest response. The security and protection of Jordanians are red lines that must not be crossed."
The king also ordered a review of security procedures for responding to terrorist attacks, according to Al Jazeera. Prime Minister Jafar Hassan declared three days of national mourning starting Friday, with flags at half-mast on public buildings, and described the attack as the product of terrorist ideology and "blind extremism".
Azerbaijan, Iraq, Poland, Qatar and the Palestinian Authority issued statements condemning the attack and expressing solidarity with Jordan. The grand imam of Al-Azhar in Cairo, Ahmed al-Tayeb, a leading Sunni institution, called the shooting a "heinous terrorist attack" that "contradicts the teachings of the Abrahamic religions". The United States embassy in Amman also offered condolences. The motive remains unknown. Karak, a governorate with a shared Christian and Muslim history that draws visitors to its biblical sites, may respond with unity rather than division, analysts interviewed by Al Jazeera said, even if that was the attackers' intention.