On 12 October 2002, three terrorist attacks took place in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. 2 suicide bombings occurred in two popular nightspots in Kuta Beach, the Sari Club and Paddy's Pub, killing a total of 202 people including 151 Western tourists from Australia and Europe as well as 38 local Indonesian residents living or working in businesses or homes around the nightclubs. The blasts injured a further 209 people. It is the deadliest terrorist attack in Indonesia's history.
On 9 November 2005, former Malaysian university lecturer Azahari Husin, a member of Jemaah Islamiyyah and one of the masterminds behind the construction of the bomb, was killed in a police raid in Batu, East Java. Azahari was also believed to be the perpetrator behind several terrorist attacks in Indonesia during the early 2000s. On 9 November 2008, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Imam Samudra, and Mukhlas were executed by firing squad at the Nusakambangan prison. On 9 March 2010, Dulmatin, nicknamed "The Genius"—believed to have set off one of the Bali bombs with a mobile phone—was killed in a shootout with Indonesian police in Pamulang, South Tangerang.
Attack
At around 11:05 p.m., the explosive-laden van was driven by Ali Imron 12.5 kilometers from an isolated safehouse to Kuta Beach, then handed over to Jimi who would detonate the bomb. The van drove onto Legian Street and parked beside the Sari Club. The parking position of the van created a traffic jam behind it. Ali Imron and Idris exited the van and hopped onto a Yamaha FZ1R motorcycle. They drove to the U.S. Consulate building in the suburb of Renon in Denpasar where they planted the bomb and detonated it using a remote detonator. The explosion injured one passerby and caused minor property damage. Meanwhile, terrorist Iqbal walked into the Paddy's Pub nightclub (sometimes called Paddy's Irish Bar or Paddy's Bar) wearing an explosive-laden vest. He headed to the packed dance floor which had approximately 150 people standing feet from the DJ nearby. He then detonated the vest bomb, killing himself and numerous party-goers. Twenty seconds later, suicide bomber Arnasan detonated the explosives-laden van, killing himself and many tourists and partygoers who had exited the Sari Club to investigate the blast at Paddy's Pub.
The bombing occurred during one of the year's busiest tourist periods in Kuta Beach, driven in part by many Australian sporting teams making their annual end-of-season holiday.
Damage to the densely populated residential and commercial district was immense, destroying neighbouring buildings and shattering windows several blocks away. The car bomb explosion left a one-metre-deep (3.3 ft) crater.
The local Sanglah Hospital was ill-equipped to deal with the scale of the disaster and was overwhelmed with the number of injured, particularly burn victims. So many people were injured by the explosion that some of them had to be placed in hotel pools near the explosion site to ease the pain of their burns. Many had to be flown to Darwin (1,800 km or 1,100 mi) and Perth (2,600 km or 1,600 mi), for burn treatment.
Bombers
The individuals involved in the attack were:
- Amrozi bin Nurhasyim: purchased the Mitsubishi van and raw bomb materials, executed by firing squad in November 2008.
- Abdul Aziz (alias Imam Samudra): executed by firing squad in November 2008.
- Ali Gufron (alias Mukhlas): Amrozi's elder brother who had ordered an attack on Bali's nightclubs, executed by firing squad in November 2008.
- Ali Imron (alias Alik): sentenced to life imprisonment.
- Johni Hendrawan (alias Idris): planned and executed the attack on the nightclubs which included scouting the location, teaching the other terrorists how to detonate the bombs, and arranging meetings regarding assembly of the bomb.
- Azahari Husin: mastermind behind the creation of the bomb, killed in a police raid in November 2005.
- Dulmatin: helped build both the car and vest bombs, reported to have allegedly detonated the bomb outside the U.S. Consulate via a remote detonating device, killed in a police raid in March 2010.
- Suranto Abdul al-Ghani: age 34, helped prepare the chemical explosive component of the bombs, escaped with terrorists Abdul and Dedy Mizwar shortly after the explosions, but was later captured and sentenced to life imprisonment.
- Umar Patek: helped design and prepare the van bomb, sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, released on parole in 2022, started a coffee chain "Rami" in 2025.
- Feri (alias Iqbal, aged 24): suicide bomber who detonated the explosive-laden vest inside Paddy's Pub.
- Arnasan (alias Acong, Jimi, or "Iqbal Two", aged 23): suicide bomber who detonated the van bomb outside the Sari Club.
Victims
The final death toll was 202, mainly Western tourists and holiday-makers (including 88 Australian tourists) who were in or near Paddy's Pub or the Sari Club, but also including many Balinese Indonesians working or living nearby as well as passersby on the street and in vehicles behind the van. The blast also killed several tourists who had fled the explosion at Paddy's Pub and had run out into the street, these being the majority of the fatalities. Hundreds more people suffered horrific burns and other injuries. On 14 October, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1438 condemning the attack as a threat to international peace and security.
Awards
There were many acts of individual heroism in the bombings' aftermath. Several of these received official recognition under Australia's honours and awards system, particularly in the Special Honours List for 2003.
Timothy Britten, a Senior Constable with the Western Australia Police Force, and Richard Joyes were both awarded the Cross of Valour, Australia's highest civilian honour, for entering the burning remains of the Sari Club to free a badly injured woman from the wreckage; after rescuing her on the third attempt, both men then searched for other potential survivors until the increasing intensity of the flames and of secondary explosions made this impossible. Both men were aware of the possibility of being injured or even killed (Britten specifically believed that yet another bomb might detonate at any moment in order to disrupt rescue efforts and kill emergency workers) and indeed sustained several injuries during their efforts to rescue the woman and find other survivors.
Natalie Goold initially escaped from Paddy's Bar after the bombings but then went back into the burning building, sustaining burns to her right arm and hand, to rescue her friend Nicole McLean, who had been heavily injured by the blasts. After asking two men for their shirts to use as tourniquets for McLean's wounds, Goold secured McLean's transportation to a local hospital and stayed with her during their medical evacuation to Australia.
Robert Meredith and his group of friends were caught up in the bombing of the Sari Club; he was thrown onto his back and badly winded. Amid intense heat and flames, Meredith and his friends lifted about ten survivors over a wall to escape. The wall gave way under the climbers' weight, injuring Meredith's feet and stripping away his thong sandals, which had provided scant protection. He then reached a staircase and assisted more survivors to safety. Meredith would ultimately be left with several burns and cuts to his feet.
Lauren Munro was also caught up in the Sari bombing, being rendered unconscious; when he came to, he pulled free an injured woman who had been trapped under roof beams, and carried her out of the building and over a wall of rubble. Munro helped several other people get over the same wall before re-entering the Sari Club and spending the next two hours carrying out many more injured people and helping to fight the fire. Ben Clohessy was also rendered unconscious by the blast that destroyed the Sari Club and also rescued or helped to rescue other survivors after regaining consciousness. Goold, Meredith, Munro, and Clohessy were all awarded the Star of Courage (SC) on 17 October 2003 for their respective actions.
Awards of the Commendation for Brave Conduct were made to, among other people, Hanabeth Luke. Luke was in the Sari Club with her partner Marc Gajado at the time of the second bombing, with the explosion throwing her to the ground. After managing to escape the now-burning building by climbing through its collapsed roof using severed electrical wire, Luke began a search for Gajado, during which she came across a badly injured Tom Singer. Singer was lying close to a burning car and Luke believed that he would be engulfed in flames if he remained there.
When Singer confirmed that he could not stand up independently, Luke helped him to his feet and supported him in walking away. Luke attempted to re-enter the Sari Club to continue searching for Gajado, but a friend convinced her the area was too hazardous; Gajado was later found to have died instantly. She returned to Singer and assisted others in placing him in a car for transport to the hospital. Singer died in hospital a month later. Separately from her Commendation for Brave Conduct award, a photograph of Luke helping Singer was published in news media around the world in the days after the bombings.
Kusitino 'Kossy' Halemai, a Wallis and Futuna-born Australian citizen who was managing the Bounty Hotel in Kuta at the time of the attacks, sheltered survivors in the immediate aftermath of the blasts. A makeshift triage area in the hotel's reception area was organised by Richard and Gilana Poore, with the couple also fielding phone calls from the media and from families trying to trace loved ones. After three days of this, the Poores flew to Richard's native New Zealand where they organised the collection of eighty boxes of medical supplies; they then returned to Bali with these supplies as well as two burns nurses. Halemai and the Poores were honoured with the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), with Gilana Poore's OAM being awarded on 26 January 2005, Halemai's OAM being awarded on 13 June 2005, and Richard Poore's OAM being awarded on 22 August 2005.
James Parkinson, an emergency nurse, worked alongside Doctor Hogg from Wollongong in the Denpasar Sanglah Hospital running the trauma centre for the bombing victims. After he disappeared in Africa and Europe for three years, the Governor General's department finally tracked him down and awarded Parkinson the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2005.
The bomb
The Mitsubishi L300 van bomb was initially thought to have consisted of C4, a military grade plastic explosive which is difficult to obtain. However, investigators discovered the bomb was made from potassium chlorate, aluminium powder, and sulfur. For the Sari club bomb with the L300 van, the terrorists assembled 12 plastic filing cabinets filled with explosives. The cabinets, each containing a potassium chlorate, aluminum powder, sulfur mixture with a TNT booster, were connected by 150 metres (490 ft) of PETN-filled detonating cord. Ninety-four RDX electric detonators were fitted to the TNT. The total weight of the van bomb was 1,020 kilograms (2,250 lb). The large, high-temperature blast damage produced by this mixture was similar to a thermobaric explosive, although the bombers may not have known this.
Suspects
The organization suspected of responsibility for the bombing was Jemaah Islamiyah, an Islamist group allegedly led by radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir. A week after the blasts, Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera put to air an audio-cassette purportedly carrying a recorded voice message from Osama bin Laden that stated the Bali bombings were in direct retaliation for support of the United States' war on terror and Australia's role in the liberation of Timor-Leste.
You will be killed just as you kill, and will be bombed just as you bomb. Expect more that will further distress you.
The recording did not however claim responsibility for the Bali attack. Former FBI agent Ali Soufan confirmed in his book, The Black Banners, that al-Qaeda did in fact finance the attack. In addition, Riduan Isamuddin confessed that al-Qaeda had sent him US$30,000 to fund the bombings of the two nightclubs.
Aris Munandar (aka Sheik Aris) is a Jemaah Islamiyah associate linked to Bashir. He is believed to have assisted the Bali bomber Amrozi in acquiring some of the explosives used in the Bali bombings. Philippine intelligence considers Munandar to be associated with Mohammad Abdullah Sughayer, a Saudi national Abu Sayyaf Group in southern Philippines. Munandar is still at large. A report by the United States-Indonesia Society describes the arrest of Amrozi and other suspects.