Gunmen opened fire during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in southern Jordan on Friday, killing nine people and wounding 34 others in what officials called an unprecedented terrorist attack on Christians in the Muslim-majority kingdom. King Abdullah II vowed the "harshest retaliation" against those responsible, as security forces hunted for the attackers.
The attack struck the Church of St George in the village of Hammoud, in Karak governorate, about 110 miles (180 kilometres) south of the capital, Amman, where between 150 and 200 mourners had gathered for a funeral procession. Jordan's Public Security Directorate said the gunmen got out of a vehicle and started shooting, firing continuously for about five minutes before fleeing.
Authorities first reported seven dead and 34 wounded. The toll rose to nine on Saturday after two more of the wounded died in hospital, Health Minister Ibrahim al-Bdour said. Twenty-seven of the wounded remained under medical care, including eight at Prince Ali military hospital — two of them in critical condition on ventilators — and eight evacuated by helicopter to King Hussein Medical City.
Three gunmen, no claim of responsibility
State television aired footage that appeared to show three armed men firing near the church: two carrying pistols and a third with a semiautomatic rifle. A witness told state broadcaster Al-Mamlaka that the gunmen fired for five minutes as mourners scattered. Most of the victims were aged between 50 and 70, the witness said.
No group had claimed responsibility. Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya described the attackers as "extremists" and called the assault "unprecedented," carried out by a group with "no relationship to humanity." "This country will never be dragged into terrorism and violence," he said. "Jordanians have never seen something like this before."
The director of public security, Major General Obeidallah Maaytah, told a news conference that the search for the gunmen was continuing and pledged that "the perpetrators will be caught and our national unity will not be hit."
A rare attack on Christians
Jordan is home to a small Christian minority that has long lived alongside the Muslim majority, and an attack of this scale on a place of worship is rare in the country. King Abdullah condemned the attack on social media platform X, promising the harshest penalties and expressing his deepest condolences to the families of the dead and wishes for a swift recovery for the wounded.
The attack comes as the region remains on edge. Washington has reduced staffing at four Middle East embassies, including Jordan's, citing intelligence about increased threats against Americans — a sign of the heightened concern about regional escalation that now frames every incident of this kind.
Why it matters
The Karak shooting tests one of Jordan's proudest claims: that its Christians and Muslims live side by side in a region where sectarian violence has torn other countries apart. The king's promise of harsh retaliation and the scale of the manhunt show how seriously Amman takes that threat — and how much is at stake if the attackers are not caught quickly.
Reporting based on AFP via Dawn and The Express Tribune, Jordan's Public Security Directorate, Al-Mamlaka and Europa Press.