Jordan church shooting: Three gunmen kill seven at Karak funeral

Three gunmen killed seven people and injured at least 34 others during a funeral at a church in Hmoud, Jordan, on Friday. The assailants arrived by vehicle, entered the sanctuary, and fired for approximately 15 minutes before fleeing in a pickup truck.

Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya identified the attackers as a group of extremists during a news conference on Friday. He labeled the incident painful and horrific, stating it was unparalleled in the history of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. King Abdullah II responded by promising authorities would confront the terrorist act with the harshest penalties.

Verified CCTV footage shows three men carrying handguns approaching the church from a road. Two men initially enter through a vehicle entrance, retreat briefly, and re-emerge with a third companion. Witness Khalid al-Mdanat, who was present at the church, described the chaos as people attempted to flee while gunfire continued. He noted the attackers exited through the main doors and drove away while firing.

Other attendees described the scene as intense. One witness said the sound was similar to the start of a war. A woman inside the church reported that gunfire began seconds after a prayer and continued to escalate for ten minutes. Upon exiting, she observed bodies in the courtyards.

The death toll fluctuated in early reports, with a government spokesperson initially citing six casualties before officials confirmed the figure of seven. Security forces closed roads near a hospital in Karak treating the wounded. Families gathered at the hospital entrance, where heavy security measures were in place ahead of the King’s visit to the injured.

Karak maintains a sizeable Christian community within Jordan’s majority Muslim population. While violence is rare in the region, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun condemned the event. He called it a heinous terrorist attack that violated the sanctity of death and contradicted religious and humanitarian values.