Bomb blasts rock Bali, at least 25 dead

BALI, Indonesia - Three bomb blasts ripped through popular tourist areas on the famous Indonesian resort island of Bali last night, killing at least 25 people including foreigners and wounding nearly 90, officials said.  

Some reports put the death toll at 36.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono condemned as terrorism the nearly simultaneous blasts, which come almost exactly three years after militants linked to al Qaeda bombed two nightclubs in Bali, killing 202 people, mainly foreign tourists.  

Police confirmed three blasts at separate restaurants packed with evening diners, two at popular seafood eateries on Jimbaran Beach and one at Kuta Beach in an area surrounded by shops. The bombs went off at about midnight NZ time.

"People were running for their lives. Foreign tourists were wounded. I am so scared," Yosi, 24, a shop owner in Kuta Beach near the blast site said. 

Officials at Bali's Sanglah hospital said 25 dead had been brought in. So far 12 bodies had been identified, comprising 10 Indonesians, one Australian and a Japanese national.  

Nearly 90 people, including five South Koreans, had been wounded, officials said.  

Australian Jason Childs said he was having dinner along Jimbaran Beach when the bombs went off.  

"We helped a few victims on the sand there on the beach and there were a few people lying ... on the tables which are out on the beach, dead," Childs told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.  

"I didn't want to walk in there too far, too scared another bomb would go off, and everyone started screaming 'there's another bomb' and everyone started running."  

The site of the Jimbaran blasts is near the upmarket Four Seasons Hotel.  

Inside the badly damaged Raja restaurant and bar in Kuta Beach, a popular eatery, blood was spattered on the floor. Shattered glass from other shops and cafes littered the street. 

People were crying and looked shocked, television pictures showed. Wounded Indonesian victims sat on the pavement, while foreigners appeared to be in panic.  
Yudhoyono said it was too soon to blame anyone for the attacks, which security experts said bore the hallmarks of Jemaah Islamiah, a network seen as the regional arm of al Qaeda.  

Police have blamed Jemaah Islamiah for a series of attacks against Western targets in the world's most populous Muslim nation in recent years, including the 2002 Bali blasts, which also took place on a Saturday night. They have launched roughly one major attack each year since then.  

"This is clearly a terrorist act ... We will catch the perpetrators and punish them," Yudhoyono told an impromptu news conference in Jakarta, adding he would go to Bali today.  

Ken Conboy, a security and military expert in Jakarta, said attention would focus on Jemaah Islamiah (JI). 

"If you look at all the previous JI bombs, we know through interrogation that they considered the Bali bombing was their sole success. They really thought of that as a success, so I guess they're trying to repeat their earlier success," he said.  

More than 30 militants were eventually caught and convicted over the 2002 Bali attacks.  

Bali, 960 km east of Jakarta, is Indonesia's most popular destination for foreign tourists. While the number of foreign tourists dropped sharply after the attacks three years ago, the island's key industry has since recovered.  

The predominantly Hindu island is home to 3 million people and is famous for its beautiful beaches, rich culture and picture postcard landscapes of rice fields and volcanoes.

 - REUTERS