A person appears by way of a spot in a stone wall towards a Greek Orthodox church the place gunmen opened fireplace throughout a funeral hours earlier in Hamoud village, in Jordan’s Karak governorate on Friday.
AP Picture/AP
cover caption
AP Picture/AP
JERUSALEM — Gunmen opened fireplace throughout a funeral at a church in Jordan on Friday, killing seven individuals and wounding 40 others, authorities mentioned.
The capturing passed off at a Greek Orthodox church in Karak, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of the capital, Amman.
Footage broadcast on Jordanian state tv confirmed two gunmen who look like holding pistols approaching the church and firing photographs. A 3rd man who seems to be holding a semiautomatic rifle then approaches and opens fireplace, and all three then run towards the church.
Video footage taken by witnesses reveals damaged glass and swimming pools of blood on the ground of the church.
Dorgham Halasa, who was among the many mourners contained in the church, mentioned intense gunfire erupted quarter-hour after the funeral had began, after which individuals began working. “It was a bizarre scenario, and heavy gunfire,” Halasa mentioned.
He didn’t see the gunmen, however mentioned different individuals reported seeing 4 of them. The Related Press couldn’t independently confirm the variety of assailants, and Jordan’s safety providers didn’t instantly launch particulars.
A authorities assertion mentioned that the assault was “carried out by unknown assailants,” however did not say whether or not any gunmen had been captured or killed. It mentioned that “investigations are underway at full pace.”
Jordan declared three days of nationwide mourning, in keeping with the dominion’s Petra Information Company.
Troopers and safety officers maintain again residents exterior Prince Ali Navy Hospital throughout King Abdullah II’s go to to individuals wounded when gunmen opened fireplace throughout a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church hours earlier, in Karak, Jordan on Friday.
AP Picture/AP
cover caption
AP Picture/AP
Karak is residence to a minority Christian inhabitants.
In 2016, gunmen ambushed police in a collection of assaults in Karak, together with at a Crusader fort widespread with vacationers, killing 10 individuals, together with seven officers, and wounding dozens. Jordanian safety forces killed these gunmen after an extended standoff.
Jordan’s Well being Minister Ibrahim al-Budour mentioned two of these wounded are in crucial situation.
King Abdullah II mentioned on X that Jordan “will confront the terrorist act that focused Karak with the harshest penalties” and provided his “deepest condolences to the households of the martyrs, and our needs for restoration to the wounded.”
Jordan’s Prime Minister Jafar Hassan mentioned throughout a safety assembly in Karak on Friday night that the assault was a results of terrorist ideology and blind extremism. He mentioned the assailants can be punished and authorized measures taken in opposition to those that search to introduce extremism.
Condemnation of the slayings got here from across the area, together with from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Oman.
Ahmed al-Tayeb in Cairo, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world’s foremost non secular establishment, provided his condolences to the households of victims in Friday’s capturing, calling it a “heinous terrorist assault.”
Iraqi Overseas Minister Fuad Hussein referred to as his Jordanian counterpart and “affirmed Iraq’s solidarity with Jordan within the face of terrorism,” Hussein’s workplace mentioned in an announcement.
U.N. Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres condemned the assault throughout a funeral as “particularly heinous,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric mentioned. “The secretary-general additionally requires all these accountable to be discovered and to be held to account.”