In a scene of pure terror, armed gunmen turned a funeral service into a bloodbath today after opening fire on mourners gathered at a Greek Orthodox church in southern Jordan.
At least six people were slaughtered and dozens more wounded when three attackers burst onto the grounds of the Hammoud Church in the village of Hammoud, near Karak, roughly 110 miles south of the capital, Amman, and sprayed bullets at the congregation.
Chilling security camera footage, broadcast by Al Arabiya and Jordanian state television and verified by multiple outlets, captures the brazen assault in sickening detail. The grainy images show the men approaching from the street, taking cover behind a low wall and trees, then advancing and firing toward the church entrance where mourners had gathered for the funeral of a local community member.
Witnesses described minutes of relentless gunfire. One mourner, Khaled Burqan, told state broadcaster Al-Mamlaka that the attackers, one carrying a rifle and another a pistol, opened fire on the crowd of 150 to 200 people. Another survivor recounted hiding behind the altar as shots rang out and people collapsed, bloodied, around them. “It was a massacre. I did not imagine I would get out alive,” she said. People were “crying, wailing, screaming, it’s hard to describe.”
Most of the victims were aged between 50 and 70, according to local reports. Blood was later seen smeared on the floor near the church entrance as security forces flooded the area.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II rushed to the scene and condemned the attack in the strongest terms. “The terrorist attack against Karak will be met with the harshest retaliation,” he said. “Those who delude themselves into thinking that they can divide Jordanians with their bullets have no chance in the face of our unity. Every Jordanian life is precious, and we will strike with an iron fist against those who dare to threaten our nation.”
Interior Minister Mazin Al Farrayeh described the perpetrators as a “group of extremists” and confirmed a manhunt is underway. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the assault, which officials have labeled a terrorist attack, a rare and shocking strike against the country’s small Christian minority in an otherwise stable kingdom.
The attack has stunned Jordan. Christians make up only a small percentage of the population, and Karak itself has a long history of coexistence. The last major terrorist incident in the area was the 2016 attack on the historic Karak Castle, which left 10 people dead.
As night fell, security forces remained deployed around the church while the search for the gunmen continued. Families of the dead and injured waited for news, their grief compounded by the knowledge that the attackers remain at large.
The footage and eyewitness accounts have left the nation reeling, a peaceful funeral turned, in a matter of minutes, into a scene of carnage.
A note on comments: Our advertisers enforce a strict zero-tolerance policy on racism, hate speech, and threats of violence. Any comment that crosses that line will be removed and the account permanently banned — no warnings. Debate hard, but keep it civil.