Theme: Jordan

Jordan’s King Abdullah II said the kingdom would not be shaken by a deadly attack on a church in the western city of Karak last month. The attack, two weeks ago, hit an Orthodox church in Karak Province, in the west of the country, and left nine people dead and about 40 wounded.

At the opening of parliament, Jordan's King Abdullah said that there would be no security in the Middle East until the Palestinians' right to their homeland is fulfilled. He said the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza continues, as do the attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and that Israel's expansionist ambitions remain the greatest threat to the region's future and hopes.

Jordanian border guards stopped 14 armed individuals trying to cross into northern Jordan from Syria, the armed forces said in a statement on Saturday. The group tried to infiltrate on Friday under heavy fire and direct engagement, causing numerous casualties among the armed group, while the remaining members fled back into Syria, according to the armed forces, in a Reuters text republished by Arab News.

Jordan and Syria agreed on Tuesday to set up a joint security committee to investigate Jordanian airstrikes in southern Syria and step up coordination, according to TRT World. Seven people were killed and three injured in Monday’s strikes, according to Al Ekhbariya TV citing Daraa’s health directorate, and Jordan’s army said the targets belonged to groups tied to Friday’s attack on worshippers at a church in Hamoud, in Karak province.

Jordan’s air force struck targets in southern Syria it describes as terrorist hideouts, tied to the attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Karak, according to Arab News. Damascus says civilians were killed. In Jordan, seven people were killed in an attack on a funeral, according to the BBC.

Syria closed its Nasib border crossing with Jordan on Tuesday, suspending passenger and commercial traffic in both directions, according to Anadolu. Syria's Civil Defence said its crews had recovered the bodies of seven people — three men, a woman and three children, according to Al Jazeera. The Jordanian military said the strikes on Syria were launched “in coordination with the Syrian government”, which Syria denied.

Jordan said on Monday that its air force struck what it described as militant hideouts in southern Syria, after determining that the attackers behind last week's deadly church attack were linked to terrorist groups operating there, according to the Jerusalem Post. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities, and it was not clear whether the strikes were carried out in coordination with Damascus. The Xinhua news agency also reported Jordan's airstrikes on those behind the church attack.

Jordanian security forces arrested on Monday three suspects in the shooting attack during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church on Friday in the village of Hamoud, Karak governorate, which killed nine people, according to Jordanian state television cited by The Jerusalem Post. The attack also left 25 people wounded, according to TRT World.

The death toll in the attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Karak, southern Jordan, rose to nine on Saturday, a day after the shooting, with nearly 40 others wounded, according to the Associated Press, in a text published by The Times of Israel. The church is in Hamoud village, in Karak governorate, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Amman, and the attack happened as people had gathered for a funeral. Witness Saed al-Halaseh said three masked men armed with automatic weapons appeared all of a sudden and began firing indiscriminately at those standing outside. No group has claimed responsibility and no armed group has been accused of the attack, which Jordan's government described as a terrorist act. King Abdullah II directed 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.

The identity of the three gunmen who opened fire at a church in Jordan's Karak governorate on Friday, killing eight people and injuring dozens according to the Jordanian Ministry of Health, has not been confirmed, and government statements refer to them as “unknown assailants”. Security forces are still searching for them.

The death toll from the attack on an Orthodox church in Al-Karak, Jordan, has risen to eight after a Jordanian woman injured in the attack died in a local hospital, according to the kingdom’s Health Ministry, cited by TASS. The US embassy in Amman said security had been stepped up at malls, foreign embassies and other locations across Jordan after Friday’s attack, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Jordan declared three days of national mourning for the victims of the shooting at a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in Karak, about 180km (110 miles) south of Amman, according to the kingdom's Petra news agency. Gunmen opened fire during the funeral on Friday, killing seven people and wounding 40 others, according to authorities cited by the Guardian.

Jordan's director of public security, Major General Abdullah Al-Maaytah, said the toll from the shooting at a church in the south of the country had risen to seven dead and 34 wounded, 27 of whom were still receiving treatment, according to The Times of Israel. King Abdullah II said the “terrorist attack against Karak” would be met with “the harshest retaliation”, in an English-language post on X. The gunmen killed at least seven people and wounded dozens in the attack on Friday.

At least seven people were killed on Friday when two gunmen opened fire on a funeral in central Jordan, according to the country's state media, as cited by the BBC. Another 10 people were injured at the church in Karak governorate. State-owned television Al-Mamlaka reported that security forces were deployed to the Hamoud church and were pursuing two suspects who, according to reports, got out of a vehicle before opening fire. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, and Jordanian authorities have not said who was responsible.