least 19 people and injuring dozens more including foreigners amid fears of new religious tensions, several news reports and officials said.
The apparent bomb blasts reportedly happened at Kuta beach, the area most popular with Western tourists, and at Jimbaran beach. They were expected to add to concern within the country’s Christian community which has often been the target of Islamic attacks.
Foreigners were among the victims, witnesses told reporters. "I helped lift up the bodies, there was blood everywhere," I Wayan Kresna, a witness, reportedly told El Shinta radio station, adding that at least two people were dead. "Many people have been brought to the hospital."
Almost three years ago, more than 200 people – mostly foreign tourists- were killed when bombs ripped through two nightclubs at Kuta beach. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the apparent bomb blasts.
RESTAURANT BLAST
Kresna said he witnessed the explosion at a seafood restaurant on Jimbaran beach, which is frequented by foreign tourists, The Associated Press (AP) reported. Another near-simultaneous explosion hit a shopping center in downtown Kuta, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) away.
Since the 2002 Bali blasts, the Islamic Jemaah Islamiyah group, which is believed to have close ties with the Al Qaeda network, was linked to at least two other bombings in Indonesia, both in the capital, Jakarta, analysts say.
Those blasts, one at the J.W. Marriott hotel in 2003 and the other outside the Australian Embassy in 2004, killed at least 23. Western and Indonesian intelligence agency have consistently warned the group was plotting more attacks.
PRESIDENT WARNED
Last month, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was quoted as saying he was especially worried that the network was on the brink of another blast. It comes amid growing concern among Westerners and the Christian minority in Indonesia about Islamic attacks. Christians have been accused by militants of supporting the US-led war on terror as well as imposing a "foreign religion" on communities.
Since august Muslim militants backed by local authorities already closed down dozens of churches in Indonesia’s troubled province of West Java where three Christian women were sentenced to three years in prison for inviting Muslim children to their church’s Sunday School, human rights groups say. In total about 200 churches have been closed since 1996, several sources said. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from Indonesia)
