Jordan strikes militants in Syria after deadly church attack

Jordan’s military said on Monday it had struck “terrorist organisations” in neighbouring Syria in retaliation for last week’s deadly attack on a church, hours after police arrested three men accused of the killings, Dawn reported, citing AFP.

The army said air force jets had “destroyed several terrorist positions” and killed and wounded “numerous members” of groups linked to the perpetrators.

Civilian deaths reported in Syria

Syrian authorities reported civilian casualties from the raids. Syria’s civil defence agency said seven people were killed, six in Daraa province and one in neighbouring Sweida. Health officials in Daraa said three children and a woman were among the dead.

Three suspects arrested

Jordan’s director of public security, Major General Abdullah al-Maaytah, named the suspects as Hazza Zaidan Mohammed, Meshal Zaidan Mohammed and Ahmad Sami Hussein. Two are brothers and the third is related to them by marriage.

They were cornered at an abandoned house, where they had barricaded themselves and opened fire on security forces. All three were wounded and are in hospital, one in critical condition, state broadcaster Al-Mamlaka reported. No security personnel were hurt.

Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya said the attackers were all Jordanians. “There is no indication of any external contacts or collaboration with foreign parties,” he said.

“An iron fist”

King Abdullah II said on X that security forces had “chased them to the very end”. “We vowed the terrorists would not escape punishment, and no proponent of dark ideologies that divide Jordanians will be tolerated,” he wrote.

Communications Minister Mohammad al-Momani said Jordan would “strike with an iron fist, without mercy or leniency, against anyone who attempts to undermine Jordan’s security”.

Background: the Karak attack

On Friday, gunmen opened fire during a funeral service at St George’s Greek Orthodox Church in the village of Hammoud in Karak governorate, southern Jordan. Early reports put the toll at seven dead and dozens wounded; it later rose to nine. Pakistan condemned the attack.

Karak has a significant Christian community. Christians make up two to three per cent of Jordan’s mostly Muslim population, and attacks on places of worship there are rare. In 2016, an attack in Karak on a security centre and police patrols left 10 people dead. Prime Minister Jafar Hassan declared three days of national mourning, and eight of the victims were buried beside the church on Sunday.

Why it matters

A number of weapons and a large amount of ammunition were seized from the suspects, the Public Security Directorate said. Before the arrests, the king visited wounded victims in hospital dressed in military fatigues.

Jordan’s own officials say the attackers were Jordanians with no known foreign links, yet the reprisal hit targets across the border in Syria, where civilians, including children, were reported killed. That raises questions Amman has not yet answered: who exactly was struck, and how the targets were tied to the three men in custody.

The strikes also add another front to a region already strained by the Iran war, the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and Israel’s operations in Syria and Lebanon.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn.