Another Terrorist Attack in Bali

From an Australian Newspaper

Deadly blasts rip through Bali
October 2, 2005 - 1:09PM - Sydney Morning Herald

Twenty-five people were dead, including three Australians, after terrorist bombs exploded overnight in three packed tourist restaurants on the Indonesian island of Bali, just days before the third anniversary of the nightclub attacks there.

Officials at Sanglah Hospital said the three Australians were a teenager from Perth, a woman from Newcastle and a man whose hometown was not listed. Nineteen Australians were among more than 100 people wounded in the attacks.

At least two Australian men were being evacuated to Singapore with serious shrapnel wounds and five Australians are listed as missing .

Police said two explosions ripped through beach-side seafood restaurants 100 metres apart in the fishing village of Jimbaran during the evening meal.

Minutes later witnesses said at least one blast tore through the Raja restaurant 30 kilometres away in the shopping district of Kuta, the scene of the 2002 bombings which left 202 people dead, including 88 Australians.

The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has confirmed the death of a 16-year-old Australian boy. Australian authorities have yet to confirm the deaths of two other Australians.

Australia believes Jemaah Islamiah is likely responsible for the latest string of attacks - the same group blamed for the 2002 bombings.

Suicide bombers suspected
A top Indonesian anti-terror official said today three suicide bombers carried out attacks on three crowded restaurants on Indonesia's resort island of Bali.

He said two Malaysian fugitives Azahari Husin and Norodin Mohammed Top were suspected of masterminding the strikes.

Major-General Ansyaad Mbai said said the three attackers went into the packed restaurants on last night wearing explosive vests. The remains of their bodies were found at the scenes, he said.

"I have seen them. All that is left is their head and feet," he said.

"By the evidence we can conclude the bombers were carrying the explosives around their waists."

Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Top have been on Indonesia's most wanted lists since the Bali attacks in 2002.

The two - alleged to be key members of the al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiah terror group - were accused of orchestrating those blasts and two others in the Indonesian capital in 2003 and 2004.

Those attacks also involved suicide bombers.

"The modus operandi of Saturday's attacks is the same as the earlier ones," said Mbai.

"We suspect [Husin and Top] were behind this."

Australian injured to be evacuated
At least a dozen Australians critically injured in the Bali bombings are expected to be evacuated in an operation beginning this morning, medical organisations say.

Two Australians suffering horrific blast wounds would be airlifted to Singapore within hours, a staff member with an international medical service said, declining to provide further details of their identities or injuries.

"We are in the process of starting evacuations," she said.

"We went into Sanglah Hospital overnight and saw probably more than a dozen critically injured. There were a couple more at smaller hospitals but they're not critical and will not be on those first flights."

Perth's major hospitals are on stand-by to receive bomb blast patients evacuated from Bali, WA's state health coordinator Andy Robertson said today.

Special flights to operate
Australian airline Qantas will operate a special flight from Sydney to Denpasar today, and another, from Perth to Bali later this evening, is being considered, the company's chief executive Geoff Dixon said in a statement.

"Qantas will send a 230-seat Boeing 767-300 from Sydney later today to help Australians wishing to leave Bali," Mr Dixon said.

"Additional Qantas staff, including medical and security personnel as well as a team from [aid agency] CARE Australia, will be on board to help our Bali-based staff meet the needs of Australians in Bali.

"Australian Airlines and Qantas have implemented a special waiver and refund policy for travel to Bali and Indonesia," Mr Dixon said.

"Customers will not pay any penalty if they want to amend, defer or cancel their travel plans to Bali or Indonesia."

Crisis meeting convened
Mr Downer will convene a crisis meeting today to discuss last night's near simultaneous bombings at two locations popular with tourists on the Indonesian resort island.

Emergency medical evacuations are being planned to bring home the most seriously injured Australians.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has set up a hotline at 1800 002 214.

An emergency response team will leave Australia for Bali as soon as possible, a spokesman for Mr Downer said this morning.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono immediately condemned the latest outrage and vowed to hunt down the perpetrators.

These are clearly terrorist attacks because the targets were random and public places," he said.

The October 12, 2002 attacks were blamed on the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah and both analysts and governments were quick to blame the pan-Asian Islamic extremist group for the latest bombings.

Travel advice reissued
Travel advice for Indonesia has been reissued, warning all Australians in Bali to stay inside their hotels, and to let family and friends know they are safe.

The DFAT spokesman could not confirm ABC radio reports that at least 15 Australians are being treated at a specialist burns unit at Sanglah Hospital in Bali's main city Denpasar.

In the latest attacks, two explosions ripped through beach-side seafood restaurants 100 metres apart in the fishing village of Jimbaran during the evening meal at about 7.30 pm local time (2130 AEST).

Minutes later witnesses said at least one blast tore through the Raja restaurant, 30km away in a busy shopping precinct in Kuta.

Australian couple found injured on beach
A couple, aged in their 40s or 50s, from Newcastle north of Sydney, are among the injured, according to Australian photographer Jason Childs who went to their aid.

Mr Childs, who lives in Bali, said he found the couple lying on the beach near the bombed restaurants at Jimbaran, one with a serious leg wound, the other apparently blinded by one of the blasts.

Mr Childs said the woman, who gave her name only as Jennifer, was covered in blood and had a huge open wound on her leg and was bleeding from shrapnel wounds to her body.

Her husband appeared to have been blinded by the explosion, Mr Childs said.

He said the two were taken in separate ambulances to a hospital.

Diplomat says at least 32 killed
A French diplomat who visited two hospitals in Bali today said at least 32 people had been confirmed dead and 101 had been injured in the blasts, which came during the peak tourist season.

At the scene of the Kuta bomb, bodies lay covered by bloodied blankets as police moved among crowds of onlookers using flashlights to pick their way through the gutted interior of the bomb-damaged restaurant.

British tourist Daniel Martin told the BBC he was standing in a building next to the restaurant in Kuta when a "tremendous" explosion erupted.

"It was just sheer chaos with no-one really taking control," Martin said, adding that "there were no police or anyone else around for a good while.

It was everyone pitching in to help the wounded.

"There were people lying in the street with serious wounds, blood pouring into the street ... I was afraid to go into the actual restaraunt for fear of what I might see in there."

Witness tells of bodies on beach
An eyewitness who arrived at the scene in Jimbaran minutes after the explosion said he saw at least eight bodies, including four foreigners. "There are also lots of body parts," Bagas Saputra said.

Television images from Sanglah hospital in the Bali capital Denpasar showed several foreign tourists, wearing nothing but shorts, being treated for injuries.

Indonesian reports listed at least one Japanese national killed and five Koreans injured. A British foreign minister, Lord Treisman, told Britain's Sky News that US, Australian, Japanese and Korean tourists were among the injured.

US, UN, UK condemn attacks
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement: "The United States condemns the terrorist bombings today in Bali that claimed innocent lives and injured many more. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims, and we wish a speedy recovery to those injured."

"The United States stands with the people and government of Indonesia as they work to bring to justice those responsible for these acts of terrorism. We will continue to work together in our common fight against terror," she said.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today he was dismayed that Bali had once again been struck by terrorists.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair condemned the bombings in the "strongest terms" and pledged his support for Indonesia's government in its fight against extremism.

Rohan Gunaratna, head of terrorism research at Singapore's Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, told AFP the Indonesian government should now formally ban the JI as a criminal or terrorist group.

"The only group that has the intention and capability to mount a coordinated and simultaneous attack against a Western target in Indonesia is Jemaah Islamiyah," he said.

President Yudhoyono had called in late August for tighter security in the world's most populous Muslim nation during September and October, saying these appeared to be favoured months for terrorist acts.

He said the possibility of more attacks remained real since two of the key bombers accused of being behind the 2002 Bali attacks, Malaysians Azahari Husin and Noordin Mohammad Top, remained on the loose.

 

I hate copy paste posts. Why not just put a link? Also, these articles are copyright protected. Aside from that, the bombing are tragic and illustrates how terrorism is widespread and wont go away anythime soon. There are too many Islamic terrorists all over the world. In 20 years im sure we will still be reading the same headlines of more bombings, iraq bombings, terrorism, death, ect. It is frustrating how it wont stop. What this comes down to is a battle between western civilization and the rest of the world.

 

It is undoubtedly awful. There are worse things happening in the world - the genocide in Sudan - as a first thought... and these things stay off the news. I think the 'terror' in terrorism, is the sort of drama the news thrives off, and it is what makes it such a powerful weapon to those who use it - because the devastation reaches beyond the immediate victims.

But if you spare a thought and a prayer for those caught in bomb attacks, spare another for those dying in no worse situations, and without the eye of the media on them.

I think that all you can do in the face of such threats is to soldier on. We can learn something from London where people were back at work the next day. Don't let them win.

 

I was of thinking fo visiting one week before. feel very sad

 

terrorists sucks

 

I'm sorry I ruined your day.

 

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to IamNed again.

Give the guy a break man! So what if he pasted in the article. If you dont like it dont read it. Nobody wants to hear your attacks on a regular member at these forums so why dont you keep your views to yourself.

I don't think I've ever seen so many of these terrorist attacks happening in quite so many places all over the World. Do you think it's partly because our media coverage is so vast these days that by committing these acts of violence that they will be noticed? It just seems such a waste of life but then it is a different culture to the one I'm used to.

 

lol Yep and the terror continues over here although the IRA have "apparently" decommissioned all their weapons. If it's true then it's 1 small step towards finding the democratic solution to the problems. This came 2 weeks after all the riots in Belfast which caused us to leave early from a night out one weekend. Thankfully all that happened in Larne (where I live now) was a burning car.

It's a unique position for an outsider who knew very little about the political issues behind Ireland/Northern Ireland to be living here. People are always trying to figure out what side of the fence you're on.

 

Speaking of media coverage. Back in the 80s there was a tonne of hijacked planes in the UK - what the government in the UK did was to ban the news outlets from actually reporting on them. Apparently this stopped them happening for a while...

...ironically, I guess we wouldn't know either way!

Is my memory making things up, or does anyone else remember this?

 

It's surely true though that there would be no point in committing a terrorist attack if no-one spoke about them.

Sometimes though the attackers are just happy to kill people but the main point behind terrorist attacks is to incite terror into society and to be noticed.

 

In todays society, when most people have the concentration span of a gnat, the news does not often delve into the causes of terrorist attacks. Nobody is happy to kill people just for the sake of it.

Do you think you might feel resentment towards people if they converged on your locality, ruined the environment, disrespected your culture, fornicated on your streets and expected you to clean their hotel rooms for $15 a day?

How would you feel if people from thousands of miles away blared out music all day and night on your street, danced wearing next to nothing, got drunk and then vomited on your doorstep? Of course, there are economic benefits to tourism, but the average Balian is not likely to benefit substantially from the influx of Australians and Britons to their 'paradise island'. Surely the mores or rights of the native Bali people should not be trampled on so that wealthy foreigners can have the vacation of a lifetime?

 

When I made that statement it was in a general context about terrorist attacks and not targetted at one particular event.

Please don't twist what I've said to suit your argument thanks!

And when I made that statement, I meant that they would just be happy to kill people because of some political issue that has inspired them to do these acts. I'm not so dull-witted that I think people just go and kill people for the sake of it!

 

A couple of my church friends were just at that very same spot 1 week before the bomb went off. God have mercy on these attackers.