Jordan arrests 3 church shooting suspects after 'fierce' firefight
LONDON -- Jordanian security forces on Monday arrested three suspects in connection to Friday's deadly attack on a Greek Orthodox church in the Karak region, the country's Public Security Directorate announced.
Jordanian officials said that the suspects were identified and tracked to an abandoned house in the village of Al-Jadeeda in the Karak region, around 2 miles from the village of Hamoud where gunmen attacked the St. George church last week.
At least nine people were killed and more than 40 others wounded in the attack, which occurred around 75 miles southwest of the capital Amman and took place during a funeral service.
A Jordanian government spokesperson said the suspects barricaded themselves in the house and refused to surrender, initiating a firefight with security forces.
Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya told reporters that all three suspects sustained "serious injuries" in what he described as a "fierce" firefight, with no casualties reported among security forces.
Jordan's Public Security Directorate said that firearms and ammunition were recovered from the site.
Faraya said that all three suspects are Jordanian nationals and that "there are no indications" of any contact or affiliations between those arrested and "outside parties."
During a press conference on Monday, Maj. Gen. Obeidallah Al-Maaytah -- the director of the Jordanian Public Security Directorate -- told reporters that the suspects did not appear to have pre-planned the attack, but instead made the decision in the moment.
The three suspects are all members of the same family from the local area and "adhered to an extremist, radical ideology," Maaytah added. Two of those arrested are brothers, he said, one of whom planned the attack.
The office of Jordan's King Abdullah II named the suspects as Hazaa Zidan Thenibat, 33, Mashaal Zidan Thbeibat, 32, and Ahmad Sami Thneibat, 31.
In a post to X, King Abdullah said, "We vowed the terrorists would not escape punishment, and no proponent of dark ideologies that divide Jordanians will be tolerated."
ABC News' Nadine Shubailat and Ghazi Balkiz contributed to this report.
