Jordan’s State Security Court sentenced three men to death on Sunday for a gun attack on a Greek Orthodox church in the southern governorate of Karak last month that killed nine people, the state news agency Petra reported.
The court convicted the men of carrying out terrorist acts resulting in death, possessing weapons and ammunition for terrorist purposes, and promoting the ideology of a terrorist group. The ruling is subject to appeal and automatic review by the Court of Cassation.
Gunmen opened fire during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hamoud on 23 October, in a rare attack on Jordan’s Christian minority. Thirty-four people were also wounded in the shooting.
Security forces arrested the three men on 26 October after a shootout at an abandoned house in Karak. All three were wounded in the exchange, while no security personnel were injured, according to the Public Security Directorate.
Jordan, a US partner in the fight against extremism, launched airstrikes on southern Syria later that day against groups it linked to the church attack. Syrian authorities said seven people, including three children and a woman, were killed in the strikes.
Jordan later acknowledged that its airstrikes had killed civilians in Syria, and the two countries agreed to form a joint security committee to review the incident and its consequences.
The death sentences cannot be carried out until the Court of Cassation has completed its automatic review of the ruling. The details in this article rest on reporting by Jordan’s state news agency Petra, as carried by Reuters; no independent account of the court proceedings has been published.
Sources: Reuters, “Jordan sentences three men to death over deadly church attack”, 15 November 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/jordan-sentences-three-men-death-over-deadly-church-attack-2026-11-15/
