NewzAMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordanian authorities on Monday arrested three men for an attack last week on a Greek Orthodox Church that killed nine people and wounded more than two dozen. The arrests followed a dawn shootout, and all three men were wounded, officials said.The attack struck the Greek Orthodox Church during a funeral in Karak, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of the capital, Amman, on Friday. Karak is home to a minority Christian population.The attack shocked the nation, and Jordan declared three days of mourning for the victims.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack; the attackers' motive remained unknown.Later Monday, the Public Security Directorate identified the three arrested men as brothers Hazzah Zaidan Mohammad and Mishal Zaidan Mohammad, and their brother-in-law Ahmad Sami Hussein. All three are Jordanian; they were taken into custody in Karak, south of Amman.The agency's chief described the gunmen as “takfiri,” a term used for Sunni militants, but said they were not tied to any organized group.“They only represent themselves,” Maj. Obaidallah Abd Rabbo Al-Maayta told a news conference.
He also said a large cache of munitions was found in the abandoned house where Jordanian forces apprehended the men.Jordan’s Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya said the attack by the three was the result of “a terroristic, extremist way of thinking.”“If this way of thinking is not resolved, we will see incidents like this again,” he told reporters.Jordan's King Abdullah II had ordered authorities to respond with “an iron fist” against what he called the outlaws of Islam and anyone attempting to undermine the unity of the Jordanian people.“We vowed the terrorists would not escape punishment, and no proponent of dark ideologies that divide Jordanians will be tolerated,” he said in a statement on Monday.Relatives of the victims said the arrests brought them some relief.“Despite the profound and immense tragedy, what happened today has eased our grief — and the grief of the Jordanian people — not just for us, the families of the martyrs," Khaled al-Borqan, himself a survivor of the attack and a relative of three of the people killed, told Al-Mamlaka.“Despite the sadness and pain, the news brought us joy,” Fares Halaseh, an uncle of one of the victims and a survivor of the attack, told the TV station.But the pain remains, he added. Jordanian security forces have arrested three armed men suspected of a shooting attack at a church last week that killed nine Christians and injured 34 other people, officials say. The Public Security Directorate (PSD) said the unnamed “terrorists” were located before dawn inside an abandoned house in Karak governorate, south of the capital, Amman.
They refused to surrender and opened fire on security forces, who returned fire and wounded all three of them, it added. No security personnel were hurt in the shootout. No group has yet claimed it was behind Friday’s attack by gunmen on a funeral at St George’s Greek Orthodox Church in the village of Hmoud, which is in Karak governorate.
King Abdullah II praised security forces for chasing the suspects “to the very end”. “We vowed the terrorists would not escape punishment, and no proponent of dark ideologies that divide Jordanians will be tolerated,” he wrote on X. “We pray that the martyrs’ souls rest in peace and wish the injured a speedy recovery.
May God protect and watch over Jordan and its people.” Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya said authorities would hold to account anyone involved in the attack and were “examining every factor that leads youth toward extremism”. Karak is home to a sizeable Christian community in the Muslim-majority kingdom. Verified CCTV footage from Friday showed three men holding guns approaching and firing on St George’s church.
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