Jordan's King Abdullah II has ordered security forces to act with an "iron hand" after a shooting at a Greek Orthodox church in Karak district. The attack, which took place at a funeral, killed eight people and wounded 40, Reuters reported. The gunmen opened fire for several minutes in broad daylight.
Authorities are still searching for the gunmen. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, and Jordanian officials say it is too early to determine whether the perpetrators had links to known groups inside or outside the country. The latest death toll is eight dead and 40 injured. The material provided to BTA gives a different number of dead - nine.
Increased security measures
After the attack, security measures have been increased in shopping malls, around foreign embassies and elsewhere in Jordan, the US embassy in Amman said. Police are patrolling the Greek Orthodox Church, located about 120 kilometers southwest of the capital, Amman.
King Abdullah condemned the attack as a “heinous terrorist act“ during a meeting of the National Security Council. According to the royal court, he said there was no room for leniency when it comes to the lives of Jordanian citizens.
“This is the result of terrorist ideology and blind extremism, and we will not allow our society to take this path,“ said Prime Minister Jaafar Hassan.Witness Tarek Amarin, who was at a hospital where some of the injured were being treated, described the incident as “a massacre, a real massacre in every sense of the word“.
The attackers have not yet been identified
The attack is a rare case of violence against Jordan's Christian minority. The kingdom is a US partner in the fight against armed extremist groups, and Jordanian authorities claim to have foiled several Islamist plots in recent years.
The investigation is ongoing, but at present there is no officially confirmed information about the identity of the attackers, their possible motives or their connection to a specific organization.
Sources: bta.bg, cyprus-mail.com