Sawt Falasteen - Shock and grief in a Jordanian village after church attack

At noon on Saturday, the bells of the Greek Orthodox church in Jordan's Karak Governorate, south of Amman, rang in unison alongside churches across Jordan, mourning the victims of the unprecedented attack against Christians in the kingdom, which left nine dead and 25 wounded according to the latest toll from the authorities.

Sayel al-Khaitan, a doctor who was inside the church when the attack, which took place during a funeral, began, described what happened as a tragedy.

"It is a criminal, dark, spiteful, Daesh-style attack", he said, referring to the Islamic State group, saying it targeted Jordanian society as a whole.

He described coming under heavy gunfire, saying, "It was likely that we would have fallen as martyrs in the massive attack, but, by a miracle, we survived".

Jordan's Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya said the attackers were extremists.

They are still on the run.

– 'Hunting people' –

Bullet holes marred the church's walls and wooden pews, with windows shattered and glass shards gathered into a pile outside.

Security forces have been deployed at the entrances and exits of the church in the small, predominantly Christian village.

Christians make up about three percent of the Muslim-majority kingdom.

On Saturday, preparations were underway for the victims' funerals the following day and church officials have dug a mass grave, which will become a memorial.

Father Yohanna Hamati told AFP about 170 to 200 people taking part in the funeral of a woman from his parish when the volley of bullets began outside shortly after 2 pm.

He said the mourners "at first did not grasp what was happening".

But as people fled into the church, "we began to realise there was an attack".

"They were hunting people," he said. "Nothing like it has ever happened, neither to a church nor to a mosque."

He said some of the wounded mourners were Muslim, adding "we make no distinction between Muslim and Christian" and stressing that what happened "does not reflect Jordanian morals".

In the village's guest hall, condolences were pouring in from clerics, military officials, the Vatican ambassador to Jordan and local dignitaries.

In the provincial capital Karak, dozens of people visited Prince Ali Military Hospital, where most of the wounded were taken, to donate blood or express solidarity.

Youth activist Murooj Al-Nuwaysa, wearing a pink hijab, said she came with about 25 young men and women, carrying a bouquet of flowers with a card reading, "Our loss is one".

– 'Shock and pain' –

Nuwaysa says she was at the hospital on Friday visiting a patient at the time of the attack.

"I didn't have my phone with me, and I didn't know what was happening."

"Ambulances were arriving in large numbers... It was very strange. Then there was the sight of the blood and the people... We later heard there had been an attack on a church," she said.

She said the youth delegation's visit on Saturday was an expression of "solidarity and our feeling of shock and pain."

"Our friends, colleagues and relatives, Muslims and Christians, live together and share each other's occasions. It is a huge shock."

Jordan's King Abdullah II visited the injured in the hospital, dressed in military fatigues and carrying a pistol on his hip.

"We will show them," he vowed to the victims.

Outside the hospital, Majed Jaafar, dressed in traditional Arab robes and the red-and-white Jordanian keffiyeh, said with a mix of sadness and anger: "We cried for them. Christians are cousins, neighbours and relatives. There is nothing between us but love."

"This is the first time something like this has happened in Jordan," he said.

Wisam al-Burqan, one of the villagers, said he arrived at the site of the attack minutes after the assailants fled.

"These people are not a danger to Christians alone... they are a danger to society as a whole," he said, demanding the government "strike with an iron fist, uproot them and show them no mercy".

Y.Zaher--SF-PST