Gunmen kill nine at funeral in Greek Orthodox church in Jordan's Karak governorate

Three gunmen opened fire during a funeral at St. George's Greek Orthodox Church in the village of Hamoud, in Jordan's southern Karak governorate, on the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 23. On Saturday, Jordan's state news agency Petra, citing the Public Security Directorate, said the death toll had risen to nine after an injured person died, Anadolu Agency reported. Reuters also reported nine dead. Officials had reported seven deaths on Friday, and Al Jazeera, citing Petra, reported eight earlier on Saturday. Jordan's health minister said 40 people were injured. Al Jazeera reported that 27 were still in the hospital and one was in critical condition.

Survivors told Al Jazeera they heard an explosion soon after the service began. Two attackers arrived in a vehicle and were joined by a third carrying a semi-automatic rifle, and they fired for several minutes. Reuters verified security-camera video aired on the state-owned Al-Mamlaka channel that shows three people firing at the church and then running toward its entrance. "The gunfire was indiscriminate, and you never knew where a bullet might land," a priest, Theodoros Soueiss, told Reuters.

Interior Minister Mazin Al-Farrayeh said "extremists" carried out the attack but that it was too early to say whether they had links to any known group inside or outside Jordan. Prime Minister Jafar Hassan called it "a result of a terrorist ideology and blind extremism" and declared three days of national mourning. Government statements describe the attackers as "unknown assailants." As of Saturday, no one had claimed responsibility, no arrests had been announced and security forces were still searching. Al Jazeera reported that the motive remains unclear. On Sunday, Oct. 25, as eight of the victims were buried in Hamoud, Prime Minister Hassan told his cabinet that "all state agencies are working to apprehend the terrorists," Asharq Al-Awsat reported. The attackers were still at large.

King Abdullah II visited the injured in Karak and said the attack "will be met with the harshest retaliation." Reuters reported that he promised to punish those responsible "with an iron fist." On Saturday he ordered a full security assessment and a review of policies to counter extremist ideology, Anadolu reported. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, the U.S. Embassy in Amman and Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar in Cairo, condemned the attack. Al-Tayeb called it a "heinous terrorist attack."

Attacks like this are rare in Jordan. About 300,000 of the country's 11.5 million people are Christian, according to Al Jazeera. Karak is home to many of them. In 2016, Islamic State group militants killed 10 people in attacks in Karak, including a siege at its Crusader-era castle.