AMMAN, Jordan — Monday, October 26, 2026 — Jordanian security forces arrested three suspects on Monday in connection with Friday’s deadly shooting at a Greek Orthodox church in Karak governorate, after a dawn shootout in which all three men were wounded, state television reported.
The arrests bring a first breakthrough in an investigation that has shaken Jordan since gunmen opened fire during a funeral at Saint George’s Greek Orthodox Church in the village of Hamoud, about 120 kilometres southwest of Amman, killing nine people and wounding 40 others, state media reported.
Dawn arrests after a shootout
Jordan’s Public Security Directorate said security forces located the three suspects early on Monday hiding in an abandoned house in Karak. The men refused to surrender and opened fire on the officers, who returned fire and arrested all three after they were wounded, the directorate said in a statement carried by state media.
No security personnel were injured in the arrest operation, and a number of firearms and ammunition were found in the suspects’ possession, the directorate said.
Later reports identified the suspects as two brothers and their brother-in-law. Jordan’s Director of Public Security, Major-General Obeidallah Al-Maaytah, said at a news conference on Monday that there were no indications so far that the men were linked to other militant cells, although investigations are continuing.
“God willing, they only represent themselves,” he said, according to reports of the briefing.
The Friday funeral attack
Friday’s attack took place during a funeral at the church in Hamoud, in Karak governorate. Witnesses said the shooting lasted several minutes, and footage from the scene showed a building pockmarked by gunfire in the nearby village of al-Judayyda.
Jordanian authorities have described the attackers as “extremist terrorists”. Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya said on Monday that authorities were reviewing the circumstances that led young people towards extremism and would hold accountable anyone found to have participated in the attack.
No group has claimed responsibility for the shooting, and the Public Security Directorate did not identify the suspects’ affiliation or say whether they belonged to any militant group.
A rare attack in a stable kingdom
King Abdullah, a close United States partner in the fight against Islamist militant groups, has ordered security forces to respond with an “iron fist” to the attack, which officials have called a rare assault on Jordan’s Christian minority.
“Terrorism has no place among us,” the Public Security Directorate said, adding that the suspects had met their “just fate”.
Such violence is highly unusual in Jordan, a relatively stable state in a turbulent region, although authorities say they have foiled several Islamist militant plots over the years. The arrests on Monday mark the most significant step yet in establishing who carried out Friday’s attack — and whether they acted alone.
Investigations are continuing, and officials have not yet said when the suspects will face charges.
[…] Jordanian military said the operation was aimed at groups linked to the suspects behind the Karak church attack. It did not name the organisations in its initial statement, specify the precise locations struck, […]