Jordan arrests three suspects over deadly church attack after shootout, state media says

By AbdelHadi Ramahi and Yomna Ehab

AL-JUDAYYDA, Jordan, CAIRO, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Jordanian security forces arrested three armed suspects after a shootout on Monday in connection with an attack on a church that killed nine people in the US-allied country, state television reported.

Friday's attack during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hamoud, about 120 km (75 miles) southwest of the capital, Amman, also wounded 40 others, alarming a Christian community.

Witnesses said the shooting lasted several minutes. Reuters video footage showed a building pockmarked by the exchange of fire in the village of al-Judayyda, in Karak governorate.

Jordan's Public Security Directorate said the suspects were located while hiding in an abandoned house in Karak. They refused to surrender and attacked security forces, who returned fire and arrested all three after wounding them, the directorate said in a statement published on state media.

No security personnel were injured, and a number of firearms and ammunition were found in the suspects' possession.

Jordanian authorities have said the violence was carried out by "extremist terrorists".There has been no claim of responsibility.

"Terrorism has no place among us," the directorate said, adding that the suspects had met their "just fate".

King Abdullah, a US partner in the fight against Islamist militant groups, has ordered security forces to respond with an "iron fist" to the rare attack on the Christian minority.

Such violence is highly unusual in Jordan, a relatively stable state in the Middle East, though authorities say they have foiled several Islamist militant plots over the years.

The Public Security Directorate did not name the suspects or publicly identify possible affiliations with any Islamist militant groups.

Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya said authorities were reviewing the circumstances that led young people towards extremism and would hold accountable any participants in the attack.

(Writing by Eman Abouhassira and Michael Georgy; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Sharon Singleton)