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At least seven people were killed and forty wounded on Saturday when gunmen opened fire on mourners gathered for a funeral at the Hamud Church in Karak, a city in southern Jordan, Reuters reported. The country’s health minister confirmed the toll of forty wounded, saying most remained under treatment.
Surveillance footage released by the state-owned Al-Mamlaka television channel showed three armed men firing from a corridor toward the church, taking cover behind trees and a low wall before running toward the entrance. Reuters said it had verified the footage’s authenticity through the church’s location and the surrounding wall.
Khalid Burqon, who attended the funeral, said dozens of people were present when the attackers opened fire for several minutes. Another witness, Ihab Ammarin, said he saw people collapsed in blood after the shooting. “People were crying, screaming, shouting. It is hard to describe,” he said.
Abdulla al-Maayta, head of the Public Security Directorate, told a press conference that a manhunt was under way to apprehend the attackers. Interior Minister Mazin al-Faraya said extremists carried out the attack but cautioned it was too early to say whether they had links to any known terrorist organisation inside or outside Jordan.
Prime Minister Jafar Hassan described the attack on social media platform X as “the product of terrorist ideology and blind extremism,” adding that society would not allow itself to be drawn down that path.
King Abdullah II travelled to Karak within hours of the attack. In a statement, he said the perpetrators would be punished with an “iron fist” and warned that those who believed bullets could divide Jordanians had no chance against national unity. “The strongest response will be given to the terrorist attack in Karak,” the statement read.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the attack, stressing that violence against civilians and places of worship was entirely unacceptable. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz called it a “disgusting and brutal attack on a house of worship” in a post on X.