AMMAN, Oct 23: Gunmen killed at least seven people and wounded dozens at a church in southern Jordan on Friday, with the king vowing retaliation for the rare attack on Christians in the majority Sunni Muslim kingdom.
Assailants stormed the compound of a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hammoud in Karak governorate and opened fire, authorities said.
The gunmen got out of a vehicle and started shooting during a funeral procession, the public security directorate said in a statement, adding that a hunt was underway for the perpetrators.
"The terrorist attack against Karak will be met with the harshest retaliation," King Abdullah II said in an English-language post on X.
"We will strike with an iron fist against those who dare to threaten our nation."
After authorities gave a death toll of six, Director of Public Security Major General Abdullah Al-Maaytah said it had risen to seven with 34 injured, 27 of whom were still receiving treatment.
Images from state broadcaster Al-Mamlaka showed the king visiting Karak on Friday evening after the attack.
The Royal Court also shared a video showing the monarch at a local hospital in military uniform to check on the wounded.
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"This country is ours and we will not abandon it -- we will never abandon it," an injured man told him.
Footage aired by Al-Mamlaka also showed the moment of the attack.
Two gunmen are seen dressed in casual clothes and brandishing pistols, with a third carrying a long gun, before they open fire on the church from an entrance on the street and charge forwards.
"A terrorist group has carried out a horrific act, one that is condemned in every respect, and the security services are working round the clock to track them down," Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya told a press conference.
"Jordan has been targeted by a terrorist attack carried out by a group of extremists."
He said the perpetrators had "absolutely no connection whatsoever to human values" and it "only serves to strengthen the Jordanians' resolve... to combat and fight terrorism in all its forms".
Mohammed Al-Khalayleh, minister of awqaf, Islamic affairs and holy sites, said "the sanctity of places of worship is inviolable and any violation of this is unacceptable on religious, moral and national grounds", calling national unity "a red line that must not be crossed".
Prime Minister Jafar Hassan ordered a three-day period of national mourning from Friday, with flags to be flown at half-mast over government and public institutions.
- 'Heinous' -
Minister of Government Communications Mohammed Al-Momani said security forces were investigating the attack.
A witness told Al-Mamlaka the gunmen fired continuously for five minutes before fleeing the scene.
Between 150 and 200 people were in and around the church at the time, the witness said, adding that most of the victims were aged between 50 and 70.
Karak is home to a significant Christian community in the Muslim-majority kingdom, where Christians make up between two and three percent of the population.
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in Jordan said that if the attack was aimed at driving out Christians from the holy land, "it will only make us cling to it more firmly and deepen our roots in it".
"We are absolutely certain that Jordanian society will remain impervious to every dark, extremist ideology, and that this criminal act is far removed from -- and alien to -- the moderate Islam of our country," it said.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, the Arab world's only Christian head of state, called the shooting a "heinous terrorist attack".
He said it "reaffirms once again that terrorism has no religion and no homeland, and its aim is to strike at coexistence and spread strife", according to a presidency statement.
A spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said "an attack not only on a place of worship, but during a funeral procession, is especially heinous".
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also condemned the attack, saying on X that targeting a place of worship was "an affront to our shared humanity".
Attacks on houses of worship in Jordan are rare.
In 2016 an attack in Karak targeted a security centre and police patrols, leaving 10 people dead.
The victims included seven security personnel and a female tourist, before four militants who had barricaded themselves inside Karak's historic castle were killed.