Three Bali bombers executed in Indonesia

Indonesia has executed three Muslim militants sentenced to death for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people. Jasman Pandjaitan, a spokesman for the attorney-general's office, told a news conference the three men - Imam Samudra, Mukhlas and Amrozi - were executed by firing squad on Nusakambangan island in central Java shortly after midnight.

Officials have said that after the executions the bodies would be taken by helicopter to the home towns of the accused - brothers Mukhlas and Amrozi to Lamongan, in east Java, and Imam Samudra to Serang, west Java.

Zakiah Darajad, Samudra's wife, had an open letter read by a relative at a news conference in Serang.

"(I) hope Allah gives the best to them and gives the worst to everyone that inflicted this unfair treatment," it said.

In a statement issued by their lawyers before the executions, the men said their blood would "become the light for the faithful ones and burning hellfire for the infidels and hypocrites".

In an interview with Reuters late last year, the militants said their only regret was that some Muslims were killed in the blasts.

The two explosions on Bali's Kuta strip on October 12, 2002 - one at Paddy's Bar and the other at the Sari Club - killed 202 people including 88 Australians and 38 Indonesian citizens, and dealt a severe blow to the island's tourist industry.

The attacks by the Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) were intended to deter foreigners as part of a drive to make Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, part of a larger Islamic caliphate.

Although there have been no major bomb attacks since 2005, Indonesia is still considered at risk.

The Indonesian anti-terrorist unit, Detachment 88, was involved in a series of raids last year that authorities say rounded up the heads of JI and its military wing.

Ten suspected militants were detained in July during raids in Sumatra and a large cache of explosives was seized.