Jordan arrests three suspects in deadly church attack, state media says

• Jordanian security forces arrested three suspects over the Oct 23 church attack in Karak that killed nine people and wounded 40, state TV said.
• The suspects were found hiding in an abandoned house, refused to surrender, and exchanged fire with police before being wounded and detained.
• Authorities seized firearms and ammunition. No group has claimed responsibility, and officials have not confirmed any militant link.

Jordanian security forces have arrested three armed suspects after a shoot-out on Oct 26 in connection with an attack on a church in the US-allied country that killed nine people, state television reported.

The Oct 23 attack during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hamoud in the Karak governorate, about 120km south-west of the capital Amman, also wounded 40 others. Witnesses said the shooting lasted several minutes.

Jordan’s Public Security Directorate said the suspects were located while hiding in an abandoned house in Karak.

They refused to surrender and attacked security forces, who returned fire and arrested all three after wounding them, the directorate said in a statement published on state media.

No security personnel were injured, and a number of firearms and ammunition were found in the suspects’ possession after their arrest.

“Terrorism has no place among us,” the directorate said, adding that the suspects had met their “just fate”.

King Abdullah, a US partner in the fight against Islamist militant groups, has ordered security forces to respond with an “iron fist” to the rare attack on Jordan’s Christian minority.

Such violence is highly unusual in Jordan, a relatively stable state in the Middle East, though the authorities say they have foiled several Islamist militant plots over the years.

The Public Security Directorate did not name the suspects or publicly identify possible affiliations with any Islamist militant groups.

Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya said the authorities were reviewing the circumstances that led young people towards extremism and would hold accountable anyone found to have participated in the attack. REUTERS