Jordan Hunts Three Gunmen After Church Shooting in Karak Leaves Eight Dead

Jordan's security services were searching for three gunmen on Saturday, a day after an assault on a Greek Orthodox church in Karak governorate killed eight people and wounded 40. The country's Ministry of Health recorded the casualties from the Friday shooting, and the government has classified the incident as an act of terror.

The attack began during a funeral service at a church in the village of Hamoud on Friday afternoon. Survivors reported hearing an explosion shortly after the service started. Two attackers arrived by vehicle and linked up with a third man armed with a semi-automatic rifle before entering the church and firing for several minutes.

Nasser al-Burqan, a lawyer who survived the shooting, told Reuters that one assailant stood about two metres from him and fired a handgun. His son, who was also inside, later called to report he had been shot in the leg and was receiving hospital treatment. Tarek Ammarin, who was visiting an injured relative, called the incident "a massacre in every sense of the word".

Jordan's Petra news agency reported that seven people died at the scene and an eighth, a woman, died of her injuries hours later. Of the 40 wounded, 27 remained in hospital, and the director of Prince Ali Military Hospital in Karak said one patient was in critical condition after surgery. King Abdullah II offered condolences to the victims' families, said those responsible would face the "harshest penalties", and ordered a review of the nation's security procedures for responding to terrorist attacks.

The attackers have not been identified, and government statements refer to them as "unknown assailants". Interior Minister Mazin Al-Farrayeh attributed the violence to a group of "extremists" without naming an organization. Prime Minister Jafar Hassan called it a product of terrorist ideology and "blind extremism", and declared three days of mourning with flags flown at half-mast over government buildings. The motive for the attack remains unclear.

Karak governorate lies about 120km south of Amman and houses many of Jordan's roughly 300,000 Christians in a country of 11.5 million people. Attacks of this kind are uncommon in the kingdom, though the area saw violence in 2016 when ISIL carried out a series of assaults, including a siege on a Crusader-era castle that killed 10 people, among them a Canadian tourist and seven police officers.