Nine people were killed and 40 injured when gunmen opened fire on a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in southern Jordan on Friday.
The big picture: Authorities called the Friday attack at St George's in Hamoud, Karak governorate, a terrorist act by extremists. Interior minister Mazin Al Farrayeh said it was too early to tell whether the attackers had links to known groups inside or outside Jordan.
- Security camera video aired by the state-owned Al-Mamlaka television station showed three people firing from a pavement, then running toward the church entrance. Reuters verified the footage against the entry path and the wall surrounding the church.
What they're saying: King Abdullah, a leading US partner in the fight against militant Islamist groups, visited Karak hours after the shooting. "The terrorist attack against Karak will be met with the harshest retaliation," he said in a statement.
- A priest, Theodoros Soueiss, described ordering people to the ground. "The gunfire was indiscriminate, and you never knew where a bullet might land," he said.
- Khaled Burqan, who was at the funeral, told Al-Mamlaka that dozens of people were present and the gunmen fired on them for several minutes. Another witness, Ihab Ammareen, said he saw bloodied people collapse on the floor.
Zoom in: Christians make up a minority of Jordan's population. Major general Abdallah al-Maaytah, head of the Public Security Directorate, said most of the injured were receiving treatment and the hunt for the attackers was continuing.
What's next: Security has been stepped up at malls, foreign embassies and other locations across Jordan, the US embassy in Amman said Saturday. No group has claimed responsibility.
Why it matters: Jordan is a relatively stable anchor in a volatile region and home to biblical sites that draw Christian pilgrims worldwide. Prime minister Jafar Hassan called the shooting a result of terrorist ideology and blind extremism.
