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JAKARTA - Thousands of people gathered for the funerals of three Indonesians executed on Sunday for the 2002 Bali bombings, sparking clashes between police and emotional supporters. The three men from the group Jemaah Islamiah, Imam Samudra, 38, and brothers Mukhlas, 48, and Amrozi, 46, were executed by firing squad in central Java shortly after midnight, claiming to want to die as "martyrs" and having shown no remorse for the attacks.
The bodies were delivered to the village mosque for prayers, before being carried through a crowd of onlookers - shadowed by armed police and many reporters - to an Islamic boarding school. "Of course they are martyrs. They fought hard in the name of Islam but they died. But dying doesn't mean they lost - they still won," said one supporter, refusing to give his name.
"This is God's grace. The mujahedeen (holy warriors) will fight on!" shouted someone in the crowd, crying and holding his hands to the sky in religious awe. Among those in the streets were followers of controversial cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who was accused of co-founding regional militant group Jemaah Islamiah and jailed for conspiracy over the Bali bombings, but later cleared of wrongdoing.
The bombers said they launched the attacks against packed nightclubs on the resort island of Bali - killing 202 people, mostly foreign tourists - to defend Islam and avenge U.S. military action in Afghanistan and Iraq and to create an Islamic caliphate spanning Southeast Asia.
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