The death toll from a shooting at a church in southern Jordan rose to eight on Saturday, according to local media reports, following an attack that wounded dozens of people.
Gunmen stormed the grounds of a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hammoud, in Karak Governorate, and opened fire. King Abdullah II vowed a forceful response to the rare attack targeting Christians in the predominantly Sunni Muslim kingdom.
According to a statement from the Public Security Directorate, the gunmen exited a vehicle and began shooting during a funeral procession. Authorities said a manhunt was underway to track down those responsible.
“The terrorist attack against Karak will be met with the harshest retaliation,” King Abdullah II said in an English-language post on X. “We will strike with an iron fist against those who dare to threaten our nation.”
Images broadcast by state television channel Al-Mamlaka showed the king arriving in Karak on Friday evening.
After initially reporting six fatalities, Public Security Director Major General Abdullah Al-Maaytah said the death toll had risen to seven, with 34 people injured, including 27 who remained under medical treatment.
Footage aired by Al-Mamlaka showed three armed men approaching the church. Two were dressed in casual clothing and carrying pistols, while a third held a long gun. The men then opened fire on the church from a street entrance before advancing into the compound.
“A terrorist group has carried out a horrific act, one that is condemned in every respect, and the security services are working round the clock to track them down,” Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya told a press conference.
“Jordan has been targeted by a terrorist attack carried out by a group of extremists,” he added.
Al-Faraya said the perpetrators had “absolutely no connection whatsoever to human values,” adding that the attack would only strengthen Jordanians’ resolve to combat terrorism in all its forms.
Minister of Government Communications Mohammed Al-Momani said security forces were investigating the incident.
A witness told Al-Mamlaka that the gunmen fired continuously for about five minutes before fleeing. Between 150 and 200 people were in and around the church at the time, the witness said, adding that most of the victims were between 50 and 70 years old.
Christian Community Condemns Attack
Karak is home to a significant Christian community in Jordan, where Christians account for between 2% and 3% of the population.
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in Jordan said that if the attack was intended to drive Christians out of the Holy Land, it would have the opposite effect.
“[It] will only make us cling to it more firmly and deepen our roots in it,” the archdiocese said.
It also expressed confidence that Jordanian society would resist extremist ideologies, describing the attack as incompatible with the country’s moderate Islamic tradition.
Attacks on places of worship are rare in Jordan. In 2016, an attack in Karak targeted a security center and police patrols, killing 10 people, including seven security personnel and a female tourist. Four militants who had barricaded themselves inside the city’s historic castle were subsequently killed.
