The death toll from a shooting targeting a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hammoud in Karak Governorate, southern Jordan, rose on Friday to eight.
The King of Jordan, Abdullah II, described the incident as a "terrorist act" and vowed to impose "the most severe punishments" on those responsible, expressing his condolences to "the families of the martyrs."
The king said, "Jordanian blood is precious, and we will strike with an iron fist anyone who insults this country."
He added in a post on the
Jordanian Prime Minister Jaafar Hassan declared three days of mourning throughout the kingdom, starting Friday, with flags flying at half-mast, according to Agence France-Presse.
The Prime Minister said that what happened was the result of "takfiri terrorist ideology and the result of blind extremism."
Regarding the possibility of organizational links between the perpetrators of the attack and armed organizations, government spokesman Muhammad al-Momani said that what happened “is the result of takfiri thought, extremism, and extremism, but any organizational links are subject to investigation by the security services, and will be announced when the investigations are completed and proven.”
Al-Momani added that the security services have information and details that will not be disclosed at this stage in order to preserve the integrity of the investigation.
The official Al-Mamlaka Channel reported that the King visited Karak Governorate on Friday evening, and inspected the injured who were receiving treatment at Prince Ali Military Hospital.
The Jordanian Minister of Interior, Mazen Al-Faraya, said during a press conference in Karak: “We are facing a terrorist operation,” noting that “a group of extremists” carried out the attack, and that the security services are continuing their efforts to reach the perpetrators.
Al-Faraya described the attack as “a painful and terrible act unparalleled in the history of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.”
For his part, the Director of Jordanian Public Security, Obaidullah Al-Maaytah, said that talking about the names of the suspects is “premature,” noting that the security services have information and are continuing their investigations, but it is not possible to specify a time frame for its completion given the nature of the situation.
The official Al-Mamlaka Channel broadcast a video clip showing three gunmen shooting towards the church, before they advanced towards its entrance and continued shooting.
The Public Security Directorate had stated in a previous statement that two gunmen got out of a vehicle and opened fire during the funeral ceremony, before fleeing the scene.
BBC News Arabic journalist Majdi Al-Qussous recounts the experience of his family, who attended the funeral in the church when the armed attack occurred.
At 14:15 local time, the priest received a call from his mother informing him that a shooting had occurred inside the church campus, where she and his father were attending a funeral.
Armed men entered the outer square and opened fire on a group of people present, wounding many of them.
“My mother described to me the moments of terror and panic that erupted in the church. People ran to hide under the seats and moved away from the windows. The sounds of prayers and screams began to grow, while some tried to escape,” Magdy says.
“People gradually began to regain their calm and leave the church. According to my mother, the scene was horrific: bodies lying on the ground, one of them had his head smashed by a bullet, and another had his stomach torn apart. Blood spread in every direction. My mother was able to identify her relatives among the injured.”
The injured were taken to Prince Ali Military Hospital in the Manshiyet Abu Hammour area, in Karak.
People gathered outside and appeared in a state of sadness and shock, and the roads around the hospital were closed. Some of them had to park their cars far away and come on foot.
Strict security measures were also imposed before the Jordanian King arrived to inspect the injured.
Outside the hospital, where the priests were, the atmosphere seemed tense, amidst the crying and screams of people who lost their loved ones, while signs of shock, fear and anger appeared on the faces of those present.
Al-Qussous spoke of great dissatisfaction among the people due to what they described as “the failure to tighten the grip on terrorists.”
At Karak Governmental Hospital, Tariq Al-Ammarin, one of whose relatives was injured in the attack, told Reuters that the entire Karak was in a state of shock, and he held the government and its agencies responsible for what happened, wondering about their absence and how the attackers were left at large.
Eyewitnesses told the BBC that the gunmen "tried to storm the church, but the residents closed the doors and prevented them from entering."
An eyewitness added that the gunmen "targeted those in the church square."
A man who was present in the church estimated the duration of the incident at about 15 minutes, and told the BBC that he tried to protect himself by throwing his body on the ground. He described seeing blood and injured people when he left, including someone who he said had “his head exploded.”
In another testimony reported by the official Al-Mamlaka channel, one of those present said that the shooting lasted for about five minutes, and that the number of participants in the funeral inside and outside the church ranged between 150 and 200 people, adding that most of the victims were between 50 and 70 years old.
Prime Minister Jaafar Hassan chaired a security meeting in Karak Governorate, during which he stressed that those responsible for the attack would not escape punishment.
He said that the security services are mobilizing their resources to pursue the attackers and bring them to justice, vowing to take strict legal measures against anyone who stirs up strife.
The BBC monitored an intense security deployment in front of a hospital in Karak, where those injured in the accident were receiving treatment, amid an atmosphere of anger among the people of the governorate, especially the families of the dead and injured, who demanded “the necessity of reaching the perpetrators quickly.”
The Public Prosecutor in Amman, Hassan Al-Abdallat, decided to “ban publication of the investigative case related to the events that took place around the Hammoud Church in Karak Governorate.”
The decision includes a ban on the publication and circulation of all news related to the case, except for what is issued by the official government media under the supervision of the Ministry of Government Communications.
For its part, the Public Security Directorate warned, in a statement carried by the official Jordanian News Agency (Petra), against circulating any information regarding the shooting incident during the funeral, calling for adherence to the official statements issued regarding the incident, under penalty of legal accountability.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem condemned the attack that targeted the Church of St. George in the village of Hammoud, stressing that it would not undermine national unity between Muslims and Christians in Jordan.
The Patriarchate said in a statement: “If the message aims to uproot us from our holy land and displace us from it, it will only increase our adherence to it and our roots in it.”
She added that Christians will remain a part of Jordan's history, present and future, expressing her confidence in the ability of the security services to reach those responsible for the attack and hold them accountable.
She called for the bells of all churches in Jordan and Palestine to ring today, Saturday, at 12 noon, in honor and mourning of the martyrs of the terrorist attack.
For his part, the Jordanian Minister of Endowments, Affairs and Islamic Sanctities, Muhammad Al-Khalayleh, denounced the attack, stressing that the sanctity of places of worship is safeguarded, and that harming them is religiously, morally and nationally unacceptable.
The United Nations condemned the attack, and the spokesman for its Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric, said that the Secretary-General calls for those responsible to be pursued and held accountable, considering that targeting a place of worship, especially during a funeral ceremony, is an extremely horrific act.
Karak Governorate includes prominent Christian communities, including Hilsa and Hijaz families and clans, and there are neighborhoods containing a large number of Christian families in the city of Karak.
Since 2005, Jordan has witnessed several armed attacks, the most prominent of which were bombings that targeted three hotels in Amman on November 9, 2005, and were claimed by Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which resulted in the deaths of about 60 people.
On June 6, 2016, five members of the General Intelligence Service were killed in an armed attack targeting the agency’s headquarters in the Baqa’a area in Balqa Governorate, central Jordan.
On June 21 of the same year, six Jordanian security personnel were killed in a suicide car bomb attack targeting an advanced military site serving refugees in the Rukban area on the border with Syria.
