Health Minister Ibrahim Al-Budour said Saturday that a wounded victim has succumbed to critical injuries. Twenty-six people remain hospitalized.
The death toll from a terrorist attack carried out Friday against a Greek Orthodox church in the southern village of Hamoud, in the Karak Governorate, has reached eight dead and 40 injured, officials confirmed.
The assault unfolded at approximately 3:00 p.m. as between 150 and 200 worshippers gathered for a funeral procession. According to closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage broadcast by the state-run channel Al-Mamlaka, three masked gunmen opened fire from an outdoor parking area before advancing toward the entrance of the house of worship. Armed with automatic rifles and handguns, the assailants fired indiscriminately into the crowd for roughly five minutes.
The deceased victims were all men aged between 50 and 70. Among them were several prominent local figures, including a physician, a university professor, and a member of the Jordanian Communist Party. Given the severe nature of the injuries and the scale of the mass casualty incident, the Royal Jordanian Air Force coordinated emergency medical evacuations via helicopter to the King Hussein Medical Center in the capital, Amman.
Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya formally classified the massacre as an act of terror perpetrated by a "group of extremists." While no group has officially claimed responsibility for the bloodshed, authorities stated they have identified the prime suspects, who remain the targets of an active manhunt. Additionally, security agencies are reviewing an unverified video circulating on social media that purports to show the gunmen pledging allegiance to the Islamic State organization*.
To preserve the integrity of the ongoing investigation, Amman Attorney General Hassan Al-Abdallat imposed a strict media blackout, banning the dissemination of evidentiary details or procedural updates. Concurrently, security grid measures have been drastically reinforced around foreign embassies, shopping centers, and places of worship across the kingdom.
International Outrage and National Unity
Prime Minister Jafar Hassan declared a three-day period of national mourning, fiercely condemning the "takfiri" ideology — an extremist religious practice and ideology within Islam — which he said aimed to fracture the nation’s social cohesion.
King Abdullah II, wearing his military uniform, visited the wounded at a hospital in Karak. The monarch issued a stern warning to the perpetrators, writing on social media that Jordan "will strike with an iron fist anyone who dares to threaten our nation."
The shooting provoked swift international condemnation, drawing rebukes from UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the Muslim World League, and Gulf monarchies, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In a kingdom where Christians account for approximately two to three percent of the population, analysts described the rare assault as an unprecedented attempt to trigger sectarian destabilization.
* The terrorist organization “Islamic State” (IS or Daesh) is banned on the territory of the Russian Federation in accordance with current legislation.