2002 Bali bombings

The 2002 Bali bombings were a series of terrorist attacks on 12 October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The attacks killed 202 people—including 88 Australians and 38 local Indonesians—and injured a further 209, making it the worst terrorist act in Indonesia's history.

Various members of Jemaah Islamiyah (also abbreviated JI), a violent Islamist group, were convicted in relation to the bombings, including three who were sentenced to death. The attack involved the detonation of three bombs: a bomb vest worn by a suicide bomber; a large car bomb, both of which were detonated in or near popular Kuta nightclubs; and a third, much smaller device detonated outside the United States consulate in Denpasar, causing only minor damage.

On 9 November 2005, one of the top JI's bomb-makers, former Malaysian university lecturer Azahari Husin, was killed in a police raid on a house in Batu, East Java. Azahari was believed to be the technical mastermind behind the Bali bombings and 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 on the island prison of Nusakambangan. 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.

At 11:05 p.m. on 12 October 2002, a suicide bomber inside the nightclub Paddy's Pub (sometimes called Paddy's Irish Bar or Paddy's Bar) detonated an explosives vest, causing many patrons, with or without injuries, to flee into the street. Twenty seconds later, a second and much more powerful car bomb inside a white Mitsubishi van was detonated by another suicide bomber outside the Sari Club, a renowned open-air thatch-roof bar opposite 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 great distances, to Darwin (1,800 km or 1,100 mi) and Perth (2,600 km or 1,600 mi), for specialist burn treatment.

A comparatively small bomb exploded outside the U.S. consulate in Denpasar, causing minor injuries to one person and minimal property damage. It was reportedly packed with human excrement and is thought to have exploded shortly before the two Kuta bombs.