At least seven killed after gunmen open fire at church in Jordan

At slightest 7 radical person been killed, and 34 others wounded, successful an onslaught successful Jordan’s Karak governorate that saw gunmen unfastened occurrence during a ceremonial astatine a church.

Director of Jordan’s Public Security Directorate Obaidullah Al-Maaytah told a property league connected Friday that 7 radical are confirmed dormant aft the battle connected a Greek Orthodox Church successful the colony of Hamoud.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 4Gunmen termination 3 radical astatine San Diego Islamic centre successful suspected hatred crime
• list 2 of 4Who is down settler unit successful the occupied West Bank?
• list 3 of 4US archbishop says Catholics successful service should not enactment successful firing squad
• list 4 of 4Palestine weekly: Israeli settlers onslaught writer and diplomats

⁠Twenty-seven of the ⁠wounded were receiving attraction successful hospitals, helium said.

The hunt for the gunmen is ongoing, Al-Maaytah added, pledging that “the perpetrators volition beryllium caught and our nationalist unity volition not beryllium hit”.

Survivors said they heard an detonation erstwhile the ceremonial procession started, aft which masked attackers broke into the religion and began shooting for respective minutes.

State-owned tv presumption Al-Mamlaka reported that information forces were deployed to the religion and were pursuing 2 suspects, who got retired of a conveyance and opened fire.

Funeral attendee Khaled Burqan told Al-Mamlaka that dozens of radical were astatine the procession. One of the assailants carried a pistol, helium said, and the different carried a rifle.

There was nary contiguous assertion of work for the attack.

The Greek Orthodox Church successful Hamoud [AFP]

Without naming a circumstantial group, Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya told the property league that the “terrorist” onslaught was “unprecedented” and was perpetrated by a radical with “no narration to humanity”.

“This state volition ne'er beryllium dragged into coercion and violence,” helium said, adding that “Jordanians person ne'er seen thing similar this before”.

Earlier, Jordan’s King Abdullah II vowed authorities would face the attackers “with the harshest penalties”.

“The humor of Jordanians is precious, and we volition onslaught with an robust fist against anyone who overreaches against this country,” helium said successful a station connected X.

The United Arab Emirates overseas ministry meantime condemned what it described arsenic “terrorist and transgression acts”, and said it rejected each forms of unit “that purpose to undermine information and stability”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres besides powerfully condemned the attack, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said. “It goes without saying that an onslaught not lone connected a spot of worship but during a ceremonial procession is particularly heinous,” Dujarric told reporters connected Friday.

Such attacks are highly uncommon successful Jordan. Christians, numbering astir 300,000 people, marque up a number of Jordan’s colonisation of astir 11.5 million, though the state is location to respective biblical sites that pull Christians from astir the world.

Previous attacks

This is not the archetypal clip that Karak has travel nether attack.

In 2016, a deadly ISIL (ISIS) battle saw a radical of fighters hole up successful a Crusader-era castle and termination 10 people, including information officers and a Canadian tourist. Jordanian information forces yet changeable and killed the attackers.

Karak, located astir 120km (75 miles) southbound of the superior Amman, is location to “Christians and Muslims who person lived broadside by broadside for generations”, Taylor Luck, elder Middle East analogous astatine the Christian Science Monitor, told Al Jazeera.

“This assemblage prides themselves connected its interfaith solidarity and coexistence,” Luck said.

If the onslaught was “intended to make divisions, we are apt to spot this assemblage travel backmost adjacent stronger”, helium added.

More broadly, the shooting holds value not conscionable for Jordan’s Christian population, but besides Amman’s “public diplomacy” arsenic a custodian of some Christian and Muslim beatified sites successful Jerusalem, governmental expert Xavier Abu Eid told Al Jazeera.

For years, King Abdullah has been a vocal professional of Israel’s systemic attacks against spiritual sites successful occupied Palestinian territory.

“This is thing that goes wholly against the connection that Jordan wants to springiness to the world,” Abu Eid said.