Gunmen kill seven at church funeral in Jordan's Karak governorate, officials say

Seven people were killed and 34 wounded when gunmen opened fire during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hmoud, in Jordan’s Karak governorate, on Friday 23 October, Jordan’s public security director Obaidullah Al-Maaytah told a news conference, according to Reuters. He said 27 of the wounded were being treated in hospital.

Officials first gave a toll of seven, then six, before confirming seven deaths, the BBC reported.

A mourner, Khaled Burqan, told state television Al-Mamlaka that two attackers, one with a rifle and one with a pistol, fired at mourners for several minutes. A witness told state media that 150 to 200 people were in the church. No one has said they carried out the attack, and the search for the gunmen is continuing, Al-Maaytah said.

Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya described the attackers as “a group of extremists” and called the attack “unprecedented”. Roya News reported him as saying authorities had the suspects’ names but would not release them yet, according to DW.

King Abdullah II said on X that the authorities would confront the attack “with the harshest penalties”. Al-Mamlaka reported that he visited Karak on Friday evening to check on the wounded.

The Amman Prosecutor General issued an order banning the publication of details of the investigation, the state news agency Petra reported.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the attack, his spokesman said. Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and the United Arab Emirates foreign ministry also condemned it.