Jordanian authorities on Monday identified three suspects arrested at dawn over last week’s deadly church attack as members of the same family.
“The perpetrators of the attack on the church were two brothers and the third was their relative by marriage,” Director of Public Security Major General Abdullah Al-Maaytah said at a press conference.
He named the three as Hazza Zaidan Mohammed, Meshal Zaidan Mohammed and Ahmad Sami Hussein.
Jordan’s interior minister said on Monday there was no indication that the suspects have ties with other cells.
The attack, in which gunmen opened fire during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church on Friday in the village of Hamoud in
al-Karak governorate, about 120 km (75 miles) southwest of the capital Amman, also wounded dozens. The shooting lasted several minutes, witnesses said.
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Jordan’s Public Security Directorate said security forces located the three suspects early on Monday hiding in an abandoned house in al-Karak. The suspects refused to surrender and opened fire on security forces, who returned fire and arrested all three after they were wounded, the directorate said in a statement carried on state media.
No security personnel were injured, and a number of firearms and ammunition were found in the suspects’ possession after their arrest.
“Terrorism has no place among us,” the directorate said, adding that the suspects had met their “just fate.”
The Public Security Directorate did not identify the suspects’ affiliation or say whether they belonged to any militant group.
Jordanian authorities have said the attack was carried out by “extremist terrorists,” but it was too early to determine whether they had links to known groups inside or outside Jordan. There has been no claim of responsibility.
Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya said on Monday authorities were reviewing the circumstances that led young people towards extremism and would hold accountable anyone found to have participated in the attack.
King Abdullah, a US partner in the fight against extremist militant groups, has ordered security forces to respond with an “iron fist” to the rare attack on Jordan’s Christian minority.
Such violence is highly unusual in Jordan though authorities say they have foiled several extremist militant plots over the years.
(ALARABIYA)