Jordan arrests three suspects over deadly church attack after shootout, state media says

Jordanian security forces arrested three armedsuspects after a shootout on Monday in connection with an attack on a church that killed nine people in the US-allied country, state television reported. Friday's attack during a funeral ‌at a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hamoud, about 120 km (75 miles) southwest of the capital, ‌Amman, also wounded 40 others, alarming a Christian community.

Witnesses said the shooting lasted several minutes. Reuters video footage showed a building pockmarked by the exchange of fire in the village of al-Judayyda, in Karak governorate. 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. Jordanian authorities have said the violence was carried out by "extremist terrorists". There has been no claim of responsibility.

"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 the Christian minority.

Such violence is highly unusual in Jordan, a relatively stable state in the Middle East, ⁠though 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 authorities were reviewing the circumstances that led young people towards extremism and would hold accountable any participants ‌in the attack. (Writing by ‌Eman Abouhassira and Michael Georgy; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Raju ​Gopalakrishnan and Sharon Singleton)