Jordan’s King Abdullah orders firm response after deadly church attack
Authorities are still searching for the attackers and say it is too early to determine if they had ties to known groups.
Jordan’s King Abdullah has ordered security forces to respond firmly and pursue those behind a church attack in the Karak governorate that killed eight people and wounded 40, the royal court has said.
The country has already increased security across malls, foreign embassies and other locations across the country in response to the attack, according to the US embassy in Amman, as authorities continue to search for the perpetrators.
On Friday, assailants fired for several minutes in broad daylight during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in Karak governorate, about 120km (75 miles) southwest of the capital, Amman, in what Jordanian authorities described as an “act of extremist terrorism”.
Nasser al-Burqan, a survivor of the attack, told the Reuters news agency that one of the attackers, standing about two metres (6.5 feet) away, pointed a handgun at him and opened fire on Friday.