Nine killed and 40 injured when gunmen open fire at Jordanian church

Nine people died and 40 others sustained injuries when armed men opened fire at a funeral service at St George's Greek Orthodox church in Hamoud, Jordan, on Friday. The incident marks a rare violent assault on the nation's Christian population.

Maj gen Abdallah al-Maaytah, head of the Public Security Directorate, confirmed that the majority of the wounded are receiving medical care. He stated that a search for the suspects is ongoing. The health minister corroborated the injury count, placing it at 40.

Interior minister Mazin Al Farrayeh attributed the violence to extremists. He noted that it is premature to determine if the shooters have links to specific groups within or outside Jordan. No faction has publicly claimed responsibility for the attack.

Video from the state-owned Al-Mamlaka television station, verified by Reuters, captured the sequence of events. The footage showed three individuals firing from a pavement area while using trees and a low wall for cover. The shooters subsequently ran toward the building's entrance.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene as the gunfire continued for several minutes. Priest Theodoros Soueiss said he and others urged the crowd to take cover. He described the shooting as indiscriminate, noting that people did not know where bullets would land. Ihab Ammareen, another attendee, recounted seeing injured individuals collapse to the floor while others screamed.

Prime minister Jafar Hassan called the event a product of terrorist ideology and blind extremism on X. He pledged that society would not follow that path. King Abdullah visited Karak within hours of the shooting. He promised to punish the perpetrators with an iron fist and asserted that those using bullets to divide the population have no chance against national unity.

The United States embassy in Amman announced that security measures have been increased at malls, embassies, and other sites across the country on Saturday. UN secretary general António Guterres condemned the violence, labeling attacks on places of worship unacceptable. Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, described the event as a depraved and brutal attack. Outside a government hospital in Karak, Hani Al-Mbaydeen said the state must investigate how such dark ideas enter the minds of children.