Death Toll From Jordan Church Attack Rises to Nine as U.S. Embassy Steps Up Security
The death toll from Friday's attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Karak rose to nine, the Associated Press reported Saturday, as the U.S. Embassy in Amman said security had been stepped up across Jordan and the search for the gunmen continued.
The death toll from Friday’s attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Jordan’s Karak governorate rose to nine, the Associated Press reported Saturday, with nearly 40 people wounded. The attack took place during a funeral at the Greek Orthodox Hamoud church, about 120 kilometers southwest of the capital, Amman, according to Reuters.
The U.S. Embassy in Amman said Saturday that security had been stepped up at malls, foreign embassies and other locations across Jordan. Jordanian authorities said they were still searching for the gunmen, whom they described as extremists, and that it was too early to say whether the attackers had links to groups inside or outside Jordan. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Survivor Nasser al-Burqan, a lawyer, told Reuters that prayer services had just started when he heard what he first thought was an exploding air conditioner. He said the blasts kept coming and he soon realized it was gunfire. After the shooting stopped, he said he saw two men outside a window, one masked and one carrying a handgun, and that one of them pointed the handgun at him from about two meters away and opened fire. Shattered glass left blood on his face, he said, and he later learned that his son, who had also attended the service, had been shot in the leg and was being treated in a hospital.
King Abdullah orders a firm response
King Abdullah visited Karak hours after the attack and said the perpetrators would be punished “with an iron fist,” Reuters reported. Jordan’s government has called the attack a terrorist act, according to the Associated Press.
Attacks of this kind are rare in Jordan, Reuters noted, although authorities in the U.S.-allied kingdom say they have repeatedly foiled plots by Islamist militants in recent years. The death toll rose from the seven dead first reported on Friday, when Jordan’s Public Security Directorate said gunmen had opened fire during the funeral.
Jordan’s Christian minority makes up a small share of the country’s population, and the attack on the church in Karak drew condemnation from officials who said the search for the gunmen would continue.
Reporting based on coverage by Reuters and The Associated Press.
