HAMOUD, Jordan — Security was stepped up at malls, foreign embassies and other locations across Jordan on Saturday, the US embassy in Amman said, as authorities searched for the gunmen who killed eight people and wounded 40 in an attack on a church funeral in Karak governorate, Reuters reported.

Source: Reuters via SRN News, Oct 24, 2026

Jordan's health minister, Ibrahim Badour, told Al-Mamlaka TV on Saturday that one of the critically injured people had died, bringing the death toll to eight. He said more than two dozen people were still receiving treatment in Jordanian hospitals, with one person in critical condition, the Associated Press reported.

Source: Associated Press, Oct 24, 2026

The assailants fired for several minutes in broad daylight during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in Karak on Friday, in what Jordanian authorities described as an act of extremist terrorism. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and authorities said it was still too early to determine whether the attackers had links to known groups inside or outside Jordan, Reuters reported. The gunmen have not yet been captured, Jordan's public security agency said.

Source: Reuters via SRN News, Oct 24, 2026; CNN, Oct 23, 2026

Footage broadcast on Jordanian state television showed two gunmen who appear to be holding pistols approaching the church and firing shots, before a third man, who appears to be holding a semiautomatic rifle, approaches and opens fire; all three then run toward the church, AP reported. Karak, about 120 km southwest of the capital Amman, is home to a minority Christian population.

Source: Associated Press, Oct 24, 2026

"A massacre, a massacre in every sense of the word," said Tarek Ammarin, speaking at a hospital where the wounded were being treated; a relative of his was injured in the attack, Reuters reported. Prime Minister Jafar Hassan said in a post on X: "This is a result of a terrorist ideology and blind extremism and we will not allow society to go down this path." King Abdullah, who visited Karak hours after the attack, said the perpetrators would be punished "with an iron fist".

Source: Reuters via SRN News, Oct 24, 2026

Such attacks are rare in Jordan, a US ally, although authorities say they have repeatedly foiled plots by Islamist militants in recent years. In 2016, gunmen ambushed police in a series of attacks in Karak, including at a Crusader castle popular with tourists, killing 10 people, including seven officers, and wounding dozens, AP noted.

Source: Reuters via SRN News, Oct 24, 2026; Associated Press, Oct 24, 2026