The Attack
AMMAN, Jordan — Saturday, October 24, 2026. Gunmen opened fire during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in southern Jordan on Friday, killing at least seven people and wounding dozens more in a rare attack on the kingdom’s Christian minority, Jordanian officials said.
The assailants stepped out of a vehicle and began shooting during a funeral procession at the church compound in the village of Hammoud, in Karak governorate, the Public Security Directorate said in a statement. Witnesses told state broadcaster Al-Mamlaka that the gunmen fired continuously for several minutes before fleeing the scene, as between 150 and 200 mourners were gathered in and around the church.
The director of public security, Major General Abdullah Al-Maaytah, said seven people were killed and 34 wounded, most of whom were still receiving treatment. Jordan’s health minister later put the number of wounded at 40, according to news reports. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and officials said it was too early to say whether the gunmen had links to any known organisation inside or outside Jordan.
King Vows Retaliation
King Abdullah II travelled to Karak on Friday evening, visiting wounded victims in hospital in military uniform, footage shared by the Royal Court showed. In a statement posted on X, the king vowed that the attack would be met with the harshest retaliation.
“The terrorist attack against Karak will be met with the harshest retaliation,” the king said. “We will strike with an iron fist against those who dare to threaten our nation.”
Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya described the shooting as a terrorist attack carried out by a group of extremists. Prime Minister Jafar Hassan said the attack was the result of terrorist ideology and blind extremism, adding that Jordan would not allow society to go down that path.
Security Tightened Across the Kingdom
On Saturday, police were seen patrolling outside the Hammoud church as security forces continued their hunt for the attackers and cordoned off the area, Reuters reported. The US Embassy in Amman said in a security alert issued late on Friday that security had been stepped up at shopping malls, foreign embassies and other locations across Jordan, warning American citizens to expect a heightened police presence in many parts of the country.
Attacks of this kind are rare in Jordan, a close US ally in the region, although officials have said security agencies have repeatedly foiled attempted attacks by militants in recent years. Christians make up a small minority of Jordan’s population, and Karak is home to a significant Christian community in the majority Sunni Muslim kingdom.
The attack comes at a moment of acute regional tension, with the wider Middle East already on edge over the escalating conflict involving Yemen’s Houthis and the standoff between the United States and Iran. Jordanian officials have stressed national unity in the hours since the shooting, with the king telling a wounded man at the hospital that the country would never be abandoned.
Security forces said the investigation was continuing and urged anyone with information to come forward as the manhunt entered its second day.
