Three gunmen flee after killing 8 at Jordan church attack

Three masked gunmen are still at large after opening fire on a Christian church in Jordan's Karak governorate and killing eight people. The Ministry of Health confirmed the toll on Friday, noting that dozens more were hurt in the rare assault on a place of worship. King Abdullah II vowed that those responsible would face the harshest penalties while offering condolences to grieving families. He also ordered a full review of security procedures for handling terrorist attacks.

The violence erupted during a funeral service inside a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hamoud. Survivors reported hearing an explosion just as the ceremony began. Two attackers arrived in a vehicle and were joined by a third man carrying a semi-automatic rifle. They burst into the building and fired for several minutes. One lawyer, Nasser al-Burqan, told Reuters that one assailant stood about two metres away and pointed a handgun directly at him before shooting.

"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," al-Burqan said after the chaos settled. Later, his son called to say he had been shot in the leg and was receiving treatment in a hospital. Another visitor, Tarek Ammarin, described the event as a massacre in every sense of the word. Bahjat al-Rushda, mayor of nearby Shihan village, condemned what he called a wicked attack and prayed for safety.

State news channel Al-Mamlaka reported that security forces rushed to the scene and are hunting the two suspects who arrived by car. Eight people died total, according to Petra news agency on Saturday. Seven victims fell at the scene while one woman succumbed to her injuries hours later. Of the 40 injured, 27 remain in hospitals across the region. The Director of Prince Ali Military Hospital in Karak said one person is in critical condition after surgery.

Government statements have not confirmed who carried out this strike yet, referring only to them as unknown assailants. Security camera footage circulating online shows the gunmen but has not revealed their identities or motives. Authorities are calling this a terrorist act and continue searching for the three shooters who remain free.

Footage released by Al-Mamlaka captures three individuals firing weapons outside the church before sprinting toward its doors. Other clips show the gunmen opening fire on men attempting to escape from the building's exterior.

Jordan's Interior Minister Mazin Al-Farrayeh stated that a group of "extremists" with "no relationship to humanity" was responsible, though he stopped short of naming any specific organization. The motive for targeting this church remains obscure because the attackers' identities have not yet been revealed. Prime Minister Jafar Hassan called the violence a symptom of terrorist ideology and "blind extremism" but offered no further details on who pulled the trigger.

Karak sits roughly 120km south of Amman in a region deeply rooted with Jordan's Christian minority, which numbers about 300,000 out of the country's total population of 11.5 million people. Taylor Luck, senior Middle East correspondent at the Christian Science Monitor, told Al Jazeera that Jordan's Christians "pride themselves on [their] interfaith solidarity and coexistence." He noted that Muslims and Christians have lived side-by-side in Karak for generations. If this attack was an attempt to fracture that community, he believes the bond will likely tighten rather than break. The area also holds many biblical sites that draw visitors from around the world.

Several nations quickly issued statements condemning the violence. Azerbaijan, Iraq, Poland, Palestine, and Qatar all expressed their solidarity with Jordan. Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar in Cairo, offered condolences to the families of victims in a social media post. He labeled the shooting a "heinous terrorist attack" and wrote that this crime contradicts the teachings of the Abrahamic religions while revealing perpetrators devoid of all compassion, humanity, and morality. The United States embassy in Jordan also released a statement on X offering heartfelt condolences to survivors and victims alike. "On behalf of the American people, we offer our most heartfelt condolences to the victims and survivors of the terror attack today at a church in Karak, Jordan," it said. In response, the Jordanian Prime Minister declared three days of mourning with flags flown at half-mast over government and public buildings.

Has Jordan faced similar attacks before? Yes, though they are rare. In 2016, the ISIL group carried out a series of strikes across Karak, including a deadly siege on a Crusader-era castle where 10 people died. That toll included one Canadian tourist and seven police officers. Dozens more were injured during that incident. Four attackers eventually met their end at the hands of Jordanian security forces following a long standoff.