Gunmen open fire at church in Jordan, killing several people

At least six people have been killed, and 28 others wounded, in an attack in Jordan’s Karak governorate that saw gunmen open fire during a funeral at a church.

A spokesperson for Jordan’s Public Security Directorate said at least six people are confirmed dead after Friday’s attack on the Hamoud church. Jordanian sources previously told Al Jazeera seven people had been killed.

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Survivors said they heard an explosion when the funeral procession started, after which masked attackers broke into the church and began shooting.

State-owned television station Al-Mamlaka reported that security forces were deployed to the church and were pursuing two suspects, who got out of a vehicle and opened fire.

Funeral attendee Khaled Burqan told Al-Mamlaka that dozens of people were at the procession. One of the assailants carried a pistol, he said, and the other carried a rifle.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack; Jordanian authorities have not said who was responsible.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II said authorities would “confront the terrorist act that targeted Karak with the harshest penalties”.

“The blood of Jordanians is precious, and we will strike with an iron fist against anyone who overreaches against this country,” he said in a post on X.

Such attacks are extremely rare in Jordan. Christians, numbering about 300,000 people, make up a minority of Jordan’s population of roughly 11.5 million, though the country is home to several biblical sites that attract Christians from around the world.

Previous attacks

This is not the first time that Karak has come under attack.

In 2016, a deadly ISIL (ISIS) assault saw a group of fighters hole up in a Crusader-era castle and kill 10 people, including security officers and a Canadian tourist. Jordanian security forces ultimately shot and killed the attackers.

Karak, located about 120km (75 miles) south of the capital Amman, is home to “Christians and Muslims who have lived side by side for generations”, Taylor Luck, senior Middle East correspondent at the Christian Science Monitor, told Al Jazeera.

“This community prides themselves on its interfaith solidarity and coexistence,” Luck said.

If the attack was “intended to create divisions, we are likely to see this community come back even stronger”, he added.

More broadly, the shooting holds significance not just for Jordan’s Christian population, but also Amman’s “public diplomacy” as a custodian of both Christian and Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, political analyst Xavier Abu Eid told Al Jazeera.

For years, King Abdullah has been a vocal critic of Israel’s systemic attacks against religious sites in occupied Palestinian territory.

“This is something that goes totally against the message that Jordan wants to give to the world,” Abu Eid said.