Seven people were killed and 34 injured on Friday when gunmen opened fire during a funeral at a church in Jordanโs Karak governorate, the head โof the countryโs Public โSecurity Directorate told reporters, in a rare attack on the countryโs Christian minority.
Speaking at a โ press conference in Karak, Major General Abdallah al-Maaytah said most of those wounded in the shooting at the Hamoud Church in Karak were still receiving treatment, and that the โhunt for the attackers was ongoing.
Interior Minister Mazin Al Farrayeh said the attack had been carried out โ by โextremistsโ, but that it was too early to tell whether they had any links to known groups either inside or outside Jordan.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
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A video aired on Jordanโs state-owned Al-Mamlaka television station โthat appeared to be from a security camera mounted on the church showed three people firing โat it from a sidewalk and hiding behind trees and a low wall. The video showed the attackers then running towards the churchโs entrance.
Khaled โBurqan, who was at the funeral, told Al-Mamlaka that dozens of people were present and that the gunmen opened fire on them for several minutes.
Ihab Ammareen, another witness, told โthe station that he saw bloodied people collapse on the floor after the attack. โPeople were crying, wailing, screaming โ itโs hard to describe,โ he told the station.
King Abdullah II said on X that Jordan โwill confront the terrorist act that targeted Karak with the harshest penaltiesโ and offered his โdeepest condolences to the families of the martyrs, and our wishes for recovery to the woundedโ.
In 2016, gunmen ambushed police in a series of attacks in Karak, including at a Crusader castle popular with tourists, killing 10 people, including seven officers, and wounding dozens. Jordanian security forces killed the gunmen after a long standoff.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AP)