Interior Minister Al-Faraya Calls Karak Church Attack Unprecedented

The Interior Minister has labeled a shooting at a funeral in central Jordan as a historic outlier for the country.

Jordan has historically maintained low levels of sectarian violence, but the attack in Karak governorate broke that pattern on Friday. The incident targeted the Christian minority in a nation that is predominantly Muslim. Officials are now treating the event as a major security breach that requires an immediate and heavy-handed response from the state.

The incident followed a specific sequence of events that local authorities are still reconstructing. Early reports on Friday indicated that seven people had died. A government spokesperson initially lowered that figure to six, but officials later confirmed the original count of seven dead and at least 34 injured. The attackers arrived by car in the town of Hmoud. They entered the church, opened fire, and fled. No group has formally claimed responsibility for the action.

Witnesses described a chaotic fifteen-minute window of gunfire. Khalid al-Mdanat, who was present at the church, told BBC Arabic that the shooting lasted approximately 15 minutes. He noted that people attempted to flee while bullets were still being discharged. The gunmen exited through the church doors and escaped in a pickup truck, continuing to fire as they drove away. Another witness described the sound as resembling the start of a war. A woman inside the church stated that the gunfire began seconds after a prayer. She reported that the situation escalated for ten continuous minutes before she could exit. Upon leaving, she observed bodies lying in the courtyards.

CCTV footage verified by the BBC shows three gunmen approaching the church from a road. Two of them entered a vehicle entrance, retreated briefly, and returned with a third man. All three appeared to be carrying handguns. The footage from the aftermath shows dead and wounded individuals on the ground. The verified video supports the witness accounts of a coordinated entry and exit strategy by the attackers.

Authorities have moved to secure the area and manage the public response. Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya held a news conference to address the incident. He described the attackers as a group of extremists and called the event painful, horrific, and unparalleled in the history of the Hashemite Kingdom. King Abdullah II stated that authorities would confront the terrorist act with the harshest penalties. Security forces closed roads near the hospital in Karak that treated the wounded. The King visited the injured patients, prompting further tightening of security measures at the site.

Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun condemned the violence through Lebanese media. He called it a heinous terrorist attack that violated the sanctity of death. He noted that the incident contradicts religious and humanitarian values. The attack has drawn attention to the safety of the Christian community in Karak, where residents have expressed frustration over previous approaches to terrorism.