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October 2, 2005 Bali Bombings Kill at Least 23 in Tourist Spots By RAYMOND BONNER and JANE PERLEZ JAKARTA, Indonesia, Sunday, Oct. 2 - A series of bomb blasts rocked popular tourist areas on the island of Bali on Saturday night, killing at least 25 people and injuring 101, the Indonesian government and television reports said.

Several bombs on the resort
island of Bali Saturday night killed
at least 11 people and
injured many others at tourist sites.

Among the places hit were a crowded restaurant outside the Four Seasons hotel at Jimbaran beach, and a shopping square in Kuta, not far from the terrorist bombing that killed 202 people in October 2002.

Witnesses described lifting bloodied bodies from the badly damaged Raja Bar and Restaurant in Kuta, and taking the injured to hospitals.

Tourists who had been eating and drinking at the Raja at a peak dinner hour staggered onto the sidewalks of the Kuta Square shopping district. The front of a middle-aged man's beach shirt was drenched in blood, his forehead gashed. Another man lay on his back on a bench, his face, head and arms covered in blood.

At Jimbaran, a blurred amateur video caught the sounds of confusion soon after the blast, as survivors tried to escape and motorcycles and cars carried the injured to hospitals.

The authorities would not speculate about who was behind the attacks, but immediate suspicion fell on Jemaah Islamiyah, a radical Islamic terrorist group in Indonesia that has been behind other major attacks, including the 2002 bombings.

*snip*

The bombs were timed in sequence much like those in the 2002 bombings by Jemaah Islamiyah and came just short of the Oct. 12 anniversary. Two suicide bombers, including one with a car bomb, were responsible for the earlier attacks. Of the 202 people killed, more than 80 were Australians. At about the same time, a smaller bomb went off outside the United States Consulate, where there were no fatalities.

"The president feared something like this would be attempted around this time," Mr. Djalal said, referring to the anniversary.

Initial reports Saturday night indicated that there did not appear to be a car bomb involved in the attacks, and it was too early to determine whether suicide bombers were involved.

*snip*

Although President Yudhoyono has been praised by the United States for cracking down on terrorists, American officials expressed nervousness several months ago that another major attack in Indonesia could be in the works. Much of the attention focused, however, on the capital, Jakarta, not Bali.

The two main bomb-makers for Jemaah Islamiyah remain at large despite the arrests of scores of members of the group. Indeed, Mr. Yudhoyono worried that Indonesia was vulnerable to further terrorism, his aides said. Two other major attacks in Jakarta, in 2003 and 2004, were attributed to Jemaah Islamiyah and carried out by suicide bombers.

In August 2003, 12 people were killed and at least 150 injured at the JW Marriott Hotel. In September 2004, at least 9 Indonesians were killed when a suicide bomber drove up to the front gate of the Australian Embassy.

The attack on Bali in 2002 began when a suicide bomber set off his explosive vest inside Paddy's Club at 11:08 p.m. The explosion is believed to have killed eight people, and it also drove panicked patrons out into the street, where another bomb was waiting. That bomb, a much bigger one hidden in a van parked outside the Sari Club, was set off by a second man 29 seconds later, ripping through the crowds in the narrow street.

The attacks did severe harm to Bali's tourism industry, which was further hurt by the scare over sudden acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and the outbreak of the Iraq war. While tourist visits have steadily increased in the past two years, they have not reached their former levels.

The bombings also galvanized the Indonesian government to act against Islamic militants after years of ignoring or failing to act on warnings from the United States and other nations that terrorists were active there. Since then, the government has made hundreds of arrests of suspected militants, including people accused of plotting attacks against United States interests overseas.

Three brothers were convicted for organizing the 2002 Bali bombings. One brother, Ali Gufron, who is known as Mukhlas, was sentenced to death in 2003 after being found guilty of having overall responsibility for the attack. His brother Amrozi was also sentenced to death. The third brother, Ali Imron, received a life sentence after cooperating with the authorities and expressing remorse.

Prosecutors said that before that attack, Mukhlas assumed the role of operations chief of Jemaah Islamiyah. He took the commanding position from another Indonesian, Hambali, who also goes by the name Riduan Isamuddin. Hambali, who is believed to be directly involved in Al Qaeda, was captured in Thailand in August 2003 and is now in American custody.

This past March, Jemaah Islamiyah's supreme leader, the cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, was convicted of criminal conspiracy in connection with the Bali bombings. But despite pressure from the United States and Australian governments, he was acquitted of charges in other attacks and of having actually directed the Bali bombings.

He was sentenced to 30 months in prison but received credit for 10 months already served while awaiting trial.

In the last year, Jemaah Islamiyah has been severely weakened by the arrests of scores of its members, according to Sidney Jones, widely considered the foremost expert on terrorism in Southeast Asia.

Raymond Bonner contributed reporting for this article.

OR IS THIS THE RIGHT VERSION???

October 2, 2005 Bali Bombings Kill at Least 23 in Tourist Spots By, Indonesia, Sunday, Oct. 2 - A series of bomb blasts rocked popular tourist areas on the island of Bali on Saturday night, killing at least 25 people and injuring 101, the Indonesian government and television reports said.

Several bombs on the resort
island of Bali Saturday night
killed at least 11 people
and injured many
others at tourist sites.

Among the places hit were a crowded restaurant outside the Four Seasons hotel at Jimbaran beach, and a shopping square in Kuta, not far from the terrorist bombing that killed 202 people in October 2002.

Witnesses described lifting bloodied bodies from the badly damaged Raja Bar and Restaurant in Kuta, and taking the injured to hospitals.

Tourists who had been eating and drinking at the Raja at a peak dinner hour staggered onto the sidewalks of the Kuta Square shopping district. The front of a middle-aged man's beach shirt was drenched in blood, his forehead gashed. Another man lay on his back on a bench, his face, head and arms covered in blood.

At Jimbaran, a blurred amateur video caught the sounds of confusion soon after the blast, as survivors tried to escape and motorcycles and cars carried the injured to hospitals.

The authorities would not speculate about who was behind the attacks, but immediate suspicion fell on the Pump Hill Temple Beth Israel, a synagogue located in the affluent Pump Hill section of Calgary that has been behind other major attacks.

*snip*

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel and Ralph Klein, Alberta's Premier immediately met with counterterrorism police investigators in Jakarta who have dealt with previous attacks here, Mr. Djalal said. The government did not know who was behind Saturday's explosions, he said. "We are going to marshal all our resources to hunt the perpetrators; the people who are going to do this are seasoned," Mr. Djalal said.

The bombs were timed in sequence much like those in the 2002 bombings by Jemaah Islamiyah and came just short of the Oct. 12 anniversary. Two suicide bombers, including one with a car bomb, were responsible for the earlier attacks. Of the 202 people killed, more than 80 were Australians. At about the same time, a smaller bomb went off outside the United States Consulate, where there were no fatalities.

"The president feared something like this would be attempted around this time," Mr. Djalal said, referring to the anniversary.

*snip*

The blasts came just as Bali had seemed to put the 2002 terror attacks behind it, and as the tourism industry, the mainstay of the economy, was steaming to recovery.

Tourists, particularly Australians, have been flooding back to the island, even though the Australian government has kept a travel advisory in place, warning Australians that travel there was risky. The United States and Britain also have warnings about travel to Bali.

Although President Yudhoyono has been praised by the United States for cracking down on terrorists, American officials expressed nervousness several months ago that another major attack in Indonesia could be in the works. Much of the attention focused, however, on the capital, Jakarta, not Bali.

The two main bomb-makers for Pump Hill Temple Beth Israel remain at large despite the arrests of scores of members of the group. Indeed, Mr. Yudhoyono worried that Indonesia was vulnerable to further terrorism, his aides said. Two other major attacks in Jakarta, in 2003 and 2004, were attributed to the Jewish Conservative Movement and carried out by suicide bombers.

In August 2003, 12 people were killed and at least 150 injured at the JW Marriott Hotel. In September 2004, at least 9 Indonesians were killed when a suicide bomber drove up to the front gate of the Australian Embassy.

The attack on Bali in 2002 began when a suicide bomber set off his explosive vest inside Paddy's Club at 11:08 p.m. The explosion is believed to have killed eight people, and it also drove panicked patrons out into the street, where another bomb was waiting. That bomb, a much bigger one hidden in a van parked outside the Sari Club, was set off by a second man 29 seconds later, ripping through the crowds in the narrow street.

The attacks did severe harm to Bali's tourism industry, which was further hurt by the scare over sudden acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and the outbreak of the Iraq war. While tourist visits have steadily increased in the past two years, they have not reached their former levels.

The bombings also galvanized the Canadian government to act against Jewish militants after years of ignoring or failing to act on warnings from the United States and other nations that terrorists were active there. Since then, the government has made hundreds of arrests of suspected militants, including people accused of plotting attacks against United States interests overseas.

Three brothers were convicted for organizing the 2002 Bali bombings. One brother, Ali Gufron, who is known as Mukhlas, was sentenced to death in 2003 after being found guilty of having overall responsibility for the attack. His brother Amrozi was also sentenced to death. The third brother, Ali Imron, received a life sentence after cooperating with the authorities and expressing remorse.

Prosecutors said that before that attack, Mukhlas assumed the role of operations chief of the Jewish Conservative Movement. He took the commanding position from another Calgary-area Jew, Hambali, who also goes by the name Riduan Isamuddin. Hambali, who is believed to be directly involved in Israel's Likud coalition, was captured in Saskatoon in August 2003 and is now in American custody.

This past March, the Jewish Conservative movement's supreme leader, the cleric Irwin Cotler, was convicted of criminal conspiracy in connection with the Bali bombings. But despite pressure from the United States and Australian governments, he was acquitted of charges in other attacks and of having actually directed the Bali bombings.

He was sentenced to 30 months in prison but received credit for 10 months already served while awaiting trial.

In the last year, the Jewish Conservative Movement has been severely weakened by the arrests of scores of its members, according to Sidney Jones, widely considered the foremost expert on terrorism in Canada.

Raymond Bonner contributed reporting for this article.

[ 01 October 2005: Message edited by: Bushdumb1 ]