Jordanian authorities arrest the perpetrators of the Karak Church attack

Jordanian Public Security announced that the authorities were able to arrest the perpetrators of the attack that occurred last Friday on the Hammoud Church in Karak, which resulted in the death of nine people and the injury of 40 others.

Jordanian Public Security reported that security forces found the three perpetrators early Monday morning, as they were hiding in one of the abandoned houses in Karak Governorate.

They refused to surrender themselves and opened fire on the security forces, who responded to the sources of fire, which led to their injury and subsequent arrest.

Public Security explained that the specialized investigation and raid teams were able to “arrest the three terrorists who carried out the cowardly terrorist operation and wound them all, after an armed clash with them, without any casualties among the ranks of the security force.”

The Minister of Communications and Jordanian government spokesman, Muhammad Al-Momani, said: “We stand on guard and will strike with an iron hand, without mercy or leniency, anyone who tries to harm Jordan’s security and the safety of its citizens.”

He added: "Terrorism has no place among us, and this group outside religion, customs and morals met its just fate at the hands of the security force."

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya announced the end of the joint security operation that led to the arrest of the three perpetrators.

Al-Faraya wrote on the

The Jordanian Minister of the Interior said on Friday that the attack was carried out by extremists, indicating at the same time that it was too early to determine their connection to known groups inside or outside Jordan. No party claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Jordanian authorities had explained that gunmen stormed the campus of a Greek Orthodox church in the village of "Hamoud" in Karak Governorate, during a funeral ceremony on Friday, where they opened fire.

Karak Governorate includes a prominent Christian community in the Kingdom, which is inhabited by a Muslim majority, where Christians constitute between two percent and three percent of the total population.

Following the attack, King Abdullah II met with the victims, and stressed during a meeting of the National Security Council on Saturday that “the security and safety of Jordanians is a red line,” stressing that “the hand of justice will reach every terrorist.”

The king had stated on Friday that this act, which he described as criminal, would be met with "the harshest kind of response."