"We Used Cellphones to Detonate Bali Bombs" – Terror Suspect Ali Imrom

In the most detailed testimony yet on the execution of the Bali bombings, a Muslim militant told a court yesterday the main blasts were detonated using cellphones in an operation that went off as ‘scripted’. Ali Imron, who has acknowledged involvement in the attack, also drew bursts of laughter from his elder brother, sitting in the defendant’s chair, when he admitted to a mix of happiness and regret over the Oct 12 attacks on Indonesia’s most popular tourist resort. Imron was testifying in the trial of Mukhlas, whom prosecutors have accused of being in charge of the Bali operation. Imron confirmed police and prosecutor statements that one militant who took part in the attack was a suicide bomber, who wore an explosives-laden vest into the popular Paddy’s Bar on the Kuta Beach nightclub strip. A minivan crammed with explosives was also parked outside the Sari Club, just across the road. ‘The bombing preparation took six days from Oct 6 to 12,’ Imron said, adding that he learned how to make bombs in Afghanistan. ‘We used cellphone detonators. In Paddy’s we used the detonator, it was in the vest of Iqbal or Isa. For the Sari Club bomb, it was inside the car and detonated using cellphone buttons. It went as scripted.’ Full Story