Jordan’s King Abdullah orders firm response after deadly church attack

Jordan’s King Abdullah has ordered security forces to respond firmly and pursue those behind a church attack in the Karak governorate that killed eight people and wounded 40, the royal court has said.

The country has already increased security across malls, foreign embassies and other locations across the country in response to the attack, according to the US embassy in Amman, as authorities continue to search for the perpetrators.

On Friday, assailants fired for several minutes in broad daylight during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in Karak governorate, about 120km (75 miles) southwest of the capital, Amman, in what Jordanian authorities described as an “act of extremist terrorism”.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, as Jordan declared three days of national mourning, according to the kingdom’s Petra News Agency.

King Abdullah, a US partner in the fight against violent armed groups in the region, visited Karak hours after the attack and said the perpetrators would be punished “with an iron fist”.

Prime Minister Jafar Hassan said on X that the attack was “a result of a terrorist ideology and blind extremism”.

“We will not allow society to go down this path,” he added.

Authorities said they were still searching for the attackers, adding that it was too early to determine whether they had links to known groups inside or outside Jordan.

Video footage showed police patrolling outside the church on Saturday.

Nasser al-Burqan, a survivor of the attack, told the Reuters news agency that one of the attackers, standing about two metres (6.5 feet) away, pointed a handgun at him and opened fire on Friday.

A short while later, his son, who also attended the mass, called him to say he had been shot in the leg and was being treated in hospital.

“When everything finally quietened down, I looked out the window behind me, and I saw two [assailants] — one was masked, the other was not; he was carrying a handgun,” said al-Burqan, a lawyer.

“A massacre, a massacre in every sense of the word,” said Tarek Ammarin at a hospital where the wounded were being treated. A relative of Ammarin’s was injured in the attack.

Bahjat al-Rushda, mayor of Shihan village in Karak, joined a list of officials condemning what he called a “wicked” attack.

“God willing, this country will remain safe,” he said.

Such attacks are rare in Jordan, although authorities in the US-allied kingdom say they have repeatedly foiled plots by violent groups motivated by a strict interpretation of Islam in recent years.

Karak is home to a minority Christian population in Jordan, and the country is home to several biblical sites that attract Christian pilgrims from around the world.